New 2011 Recruit: Ben Thomson

Big Red Puckhead (via Chris Heisenberg) is reporting that Ben Thomson, a 1993-born forward with St. Andrews College has committed to Cornell for 2011.

[bigredpuckhead.blogspot.com]

15 years old??? a little premature?

Cornell11
15 years old??? a little premature?

His brother is a sophomore on the Lacrosse team, so I imagine he and his family have a pretty good idea of what it takes to get in.

His HS roster lists him at 6'3", 185lbs and not quite 16 years old. He's still growing!

Looking at all the players we have coming in over the next couple years, Schafer is clearing going back to big. Next year we bring in two 6'3"s, one 6'4" and one 6'5".

pfibiger

Cornell11
15 years old??? a little premature?

His brother is a sophomore on the Lacrosse team, so I imagine he and his family have a pretty good idea of what it takes to get in.

His HS roster lists him at 6'3", 185lbs and not quite 16 years old. He's still growing!

Looking at all the players we have coming in over the next couple years, Schafer is clearing going back to big. Next year we bring in two 6'3"s, one 6'4" and one 6'5".

If I recall correctly, a few years ago Schafer was generally recruiting only for the coming year, and he commented about how difficult it is to predict how a 15-year-old would be in college. But lots of top schools started recruiting young. Now he's recruiting 3 years ahead. So far, judging by this year's frosh, some of whom committed to Cornell about 2 years ago, it's working out OK.

pfibiger

Cornell11
15 years old??? a little premature?

His brother is a sophomore on the Lacrosse team, so I imagine he and his family have a pretty good idea of what it takes to get in.

His HS roster lists him at 6'3", 185lbs and not quite 16 years old. He's still growing!

Looking at all the players we have coming in over the next couple years, Schafer is clearing going back to big. Next year we bring in two 6'3"s, one 6'4" and one 6'5".

Correction: His team's web site lists him as being MUCH smaller. I bet Mike won't be happy to learn this.

Swampy

pfibiger

Cornell11
15 years old??? a little premature?

His brother is a sophomore on the Lacrosse team, so I imagine he and his family have a pretty good idea of what it takes to get in.

His HS roster lists him at 6'3", 185lbs and not quite 16 years old. He's still growing!

Looking at all the players we have coming in over the next couple years, Schafer is clearing going back to big. Next year we bring in two 6'3"s, one 6'4" and one 6'5".

Correction: His team's web site lists him as being MUCH smaller. I bet Mike won't be happy to learn this.

But I bet he's crazy fast and will draw a lot of CTH penalties. Then he'll get fed up with learning defense and bolt for the london knights or something.

Chris '03

Swampy

pfibiger

Cornell11
15 years old??? a little premature?

His brother is a sophomore on the Lacrosse team, so I imagine he and his family have a pretty good idea of what it takes to get in.

His HS roster lists him at 6'3", 185lbs and not quite 16 years old. He's still growing!

Looking at all the players we have coming in over the next couple years, Schafer is clearing going back to big. Next year we bring in two 6'3"s, one 6'4" and one 6'5".

Correction: His team's web site lists him as being MUCH smaller. I bet Mike won't be happy to learn this.

But I bet he's crazy fast and will draw a lot of CTH penalties. Then he'll get fed up with learning defense and bolt for the london knights or something.

Well, he is playing for a midget team, after all

That is funny!

Swampy

pfibiger

Cornell11
15 years old??? a little premature?

His brother is a sophomore on the Lacrosse team, so I imagine he and his family have a pretty good idea of what it takes to get in.

His HS roster lists him at 6'3", 185lbs and not quite 16 years old. He's still growing!

Looking at all the players we have coming in over the next couple years, Schafer is clearing going back to big. Next year we bring in two 6'3"s, one 6'4" and one 6'5".

Correction: His team's web site lists him as being MUCH smaller. I bet Mike won't be happy to learn this.

I'm going to guess that at least one person on the Cornell staff has seen him in person.

ugarte

Swampy
Correction: His team's web site lists him as being MUCH smaller. I bet Mike won't be happy to learn this.

I'm going to guess that at least one person on the Cornell staff has seen him in person.

He was kidding. The roster lists every player on the team as 1'1" and 1lb.

pfibiger

ugarte

Swampy
Correction: His team's web site lists him as being MUCH smaller. I bet Mike won't be happy to learn this.

I'm going to guess that at least one person on the Cornell staff has seen him in person.

He was kidding. The roster lists every player on the team as 1'1" and 1lb.

Vesce!

ugarte

pfibiger

ugarte

Swampy
Correction: His team's web site lists him as being MUCH smaller. I bet Mike won't be happy to learn this.

I'm going to guess that at least one person on the Cornell staff has seen him in person.

He was kidding. The roster lists every player on the team as 1'1" and 1lb.

Vesce!

Nah. Topher.

Vesce had bulked up to 2 lbs by graduation.

I wonder what the kid would think if he happened to read this thread. Schafer can't exactly order 15 year old recruits to avoid the board.

I would hope he has a sense of humor... That is a decent question though, would the amount of traffic and discussion on this board help or just make them wonder if their every move is going to be scrutinized by random alumni with nothing better to do during meetings...

Yeah. I hope a high school kid seeing this thread would be laughing with the midget jokes and pleased that we care enough to talk about him. But I still wonder.

I'll bet the Minnesota message board is much more reasonable...

They'd probably already have his blood type online.

KeithK
I wonder what the kid would think if he happened to read this thread. Schafer can't exactly order 15 year old recruits to avoid the board.

We could all go to FB and friend him.

billhoward

KeithK
I wonder what the kid would think if he happened to read this thread. Schafer can't exactly order 15 year old recruits to avoid the board.

We could all go to FB and friend him.

There's probably some NCAA recruiting rule against that.

Well, not a good idea anyway to be friended by middle-age alumni with beer bellies. OK, then we follow him on Twitter, the friendly and benign form of stalking.

Still is amazing that someone can be recruited for, and in some way commit to, a college three years in advance. In his defense, maybe Schafer isn't the first guy doing this and only does it because everyone else is.

*I* would have liked to have known Cornell was probably taking me as of fall of my sophomore year in HS. I think I was starting for the JV soccer team at that point.

One problem with getting a commitment from a 15-year-old blue chipper is that he has plenty of time to change his mind and break the commitment.

Ben Thomson's older brother plays lacrosse at Cornell. Before this signing was rumored last week, I would not have expected this.

Several months ago, Cornell lost recruit Jordan Escott to the PEI Rocket. Cornell losing two recruits to major juniors does not seem like a coincidence. It appears to be part of a pattern of major-junior teams to poach top-flight players with college commitments.

See, I always knew the there was some reason I hated the Rangers

Kitchener GM Steve Spott
"We are extremely pleased that despite Ben's ivy-league opportunity, he and his family have chosen to come to the Kitchener Rangers, where he can develop as an elite hockey player while achieving his academic goals"

Via the University of Phoenix?

This is the article from the Kitchener Rangers beat reporter, who has been on top of this situation.

It seems that Ben committed to Cornell in good faith, but changes his mind after the Kitchener Rangers drafted him and sold him on playing in the OHL.