Another New Recruit

[calgARI '07]

[Q]jmh30 Wrote:

 [Q2]calgARI '07 Wrote:
As matt said, it isn't a very good league at all, considered lower than New England Prep School - a league that Schafer blatantly stays away from.[/Q]
To be fair, I don't think Schafer stays away from New England prep schools because good players don't come out of them, I think he stays away because the return for his effort is low, not in terms of quality of players but in terms of the likelihood that that effort will result in a top-level New England prospect coming to Cornell instead of BU, BC, etc.[/q]

You'll have to take my word for it, but I remember an article not too long ago with Schafer saying he doesn't think Prep School kids are mature enough.  That may have something to do with his feuds with David Hovey (Loomis-Chaffee) - an extremely talented player who was in and out of the lineup due to an assortment of off ice issues he had.

[Al DeFlorio]

[Q]calgARI '07 Wrote:

 [Q2]jmh30 Wrote:

 [Q2]calgARI '07 Wrote:
As matt said, it isn't a very good league at all, considered lower than New England Prep School - a league that Schafer blatantly stays away from.[/Q]
To be fair, I don't think Schafer stays away from New England prep schools because good players don't come out of them, I think he stays away because the return for his effort is low, not in terms of quality of players but in terms of the likelihood that that effort will result in a top-level New England prospect coming to Cornell instead of BU, BC, etc.[/Q]
You'll have to take my word for it, but I remember an article not too long ago with Schafer saying he doesn't think Prep School kids are mature enough.  That may have something to do with his feuds with David Hovey (Loomis-Chaffee) - an extremely talented player who was in and out of the lineup due to an assortment of off ice issues he had.[/q]
Wasn't Higgins a preppie?

[calgARI '07]

Yeah, he went to Avon Old Farms, but I always felt like the rumors he was going to Cornell were more pipe dreams and smoke in mirrors than reality.  Considering I was at five of Avon's games his last season and I never saw a Cornell coach there, I always had trouble believing they were really in the picture.  Anyone have any links or articles saying he was possibly commiting to Cornell?

[Al DeFlorio]

[Q]calgARI '07 Wrote:

 Yeah, he went to Avon Old Farms, but I always felt like the rumors he was going to Cornell were more pipe dreams and smoke in mirrors than reality.  Considering I was at five of Avon's games his last season and I never saw a Cornell coach there, I always had trouble believing they were really in the picture.  Anyone have any links or articles saying he was possibly commiting to Cornell?[/q]
Whether he ever had interest in Cornell is not the point.  He was a preppie who could play.

[cbuckser]

My recollection is that Cornell heavily recruited Chris Higgins, but he committed to Yale.  In an interview broadcast on pregame show before the first Cornell-Yale game in 2001-02, Mike Schafer said that he made the 5½-hour drive from Ithaca to Higgins's home in Smithtown.  During the home visit, Higgins said that he had decided to attend Yale.   Schafer was annoyed that Higgins did not say so over the telephone and spare him the long drive.  The untrue rumors of Higgins balking on a purported commitment to Cornell somehow arose after this interview.

Incidentally, class of 2010 recruit Tony Romano is also from Smithtown, NY.   As am I.

[calgARI '07]

[Q]Al DeFlorio Wrote:

 [Q2]calgARI '07 Wrote:

 Yeah, he went to Avon Old Farms, but I always felt like the rumors he was going to Cornell were more pipe dreams and smoke in mirrors than reality.  Considering I was at five of Avon's games his last season and I never saw a Cornell coach there, I always had trouble believing they were really in the picture.  Anyone have any links or articles saying he was possibly commiting to Cornell?[/Q]
Whether he ever had interest in Cornell is not the point.  He was a preppie who could play.[/q]

I definitely think there are good players that come out of prep school, although far less now than a decade ago.  Noah Welch (St. Sebs), Jamie Sifers (Taft), and Brandon Rodgers (Hotchkiss) are two other examples.  I don't deny and never did deny that good players come out of there, but it is clearly a step down from the USHL, BCHL, etc.  The forwards who come out of prep school are generally less physical and in turn less adaptive to Cornell's style of play.  

[ithacat]

[Q]pfibiger Wrote:

 grr, looks like we lost another goaltender to UMich. A month or so ago, Michigan got a commitment from Billy Sauer who plays for the Chicago Steel, Topher Scott's old team. Anyway, he's considered one of the top goaltending prospects, and Cornell was one of his final choices.[/q]

That's too bad about Sauer. He's listed at 6'2" and just turned 17 in January, and he's from Rochester. I don't know if Cornell was ever a possibility for TJ Fox who was Chicago's leading scorer, but he's from Oswego and is going to Union.

[Josh '99]

[Q]Al DeFlorio Wrote:
Wasn't Higgins a preppie?[/q]Yes, Avon Old Farms.  Also Sam Paolini (Choate) Larry Pierce (Deerfield), and Ryan Moynihan (Cushing).  Seem strange that one bad experience (Hovey) would outweigh those major contributions, but I could be wrong.

[calgARI '07]

Paolini was the last the prep school player to play at Cornell and it is well-documented that he wasn't exactly "recruited".  Since the recruiting class of 1997 (graduating class of 2001), Paolini is the only prep school player to play for Cornell.  That is in essence eight classes (including the incoming recruiting class) that have not had a prep school player (not including recruited walk-on Paolini).  At my prep school, The Gunnery, the team would play in the two most prestigious Prep School Tournaments, the Avon Old Farms Tournament and the Cushing Tournament.  In my three years attending, I saw every single ECAC and Hockey East team represented EXCEPT Cornell.

[billhoward]

The coaches only have so many recruiting hours in a season. Maybe the Harvard fans (pardon the oxymoron) are wondering why Donato and company don't spend more time in BC/Vancounver outhustling Cornell and less time on the prep circuit because "those players will come to Harvard anyway."

Going back a generation, Cornell was slow to turn from Ontario to the greatly improved Massachusetts / New England hockey scene and that cost us.

[Al DeFlorio]

[Q]billhoward Wrote:

 The coaches only have so many recruiting hours in a season. Maybe the Harvard fans (pardon the oxymoron) are wondering why Donato and company don't spend more time in BC/Vancounver outhustling Cornell and less time on the prep circuit because "those players will come to Harvard anyway."

Going back a generation, Cornell was slow to turn from Ontario to the greatly improved Massachusetts / New England hockey scene and that cost us. [/q]
I think your first sentence nails it, Bill.  If your odds of success are low, you invest your time elsewhere.

With much urging I finally got Bertrand to take a look at Boston-area kids after BU had taken ECAC primacy away from us in the early-and mid-70s playing a lot of home-grown talent.  He was impressed, and did take an interest, but, IIRC, the only guy he was able to attract was Steve Hennessy, a good D-man from Thayer Academy who was tri-captain of the 1980 ECAC championship team.

[profudge]

I agree that coach's  efforts 'seem'    to be directed to Major junior players and the longer  and some say 'harder' season when compared to preps.    Given Cornell's  success and Schafer's  over recent history I would not criticize or question this.

I do believe there are exceptions!   Example - near the end of Jamie Sifers HS junior season at Taft,  I sent coach an e-mail that said  take  good look at this kid -  he has the intangibles of leadership and spirit and will to win  that make for a great team player.  So far his career at Vt has shown this seems to be true.

I have no idea if  Jamie would have even considered Cornell but I believe in passing on, information that I have.  Particularly  first (or a close second) hand info should be sent to the coaching staff and let them make decisions as appropriate.    

If  we  "Lynah Faithful"  see over a period of time  (more than just one or two games, in one season) an exceptional  student/athlete then maybe we can send in some information and contact info to the coaching staff -    How they use our input is up to them and in no way should we come back at them for 'ignoring' or not acting strongly on our input - that is not our business.

[billhoward]

So if Cornell hasn't plumbed the depths of prep hockey in New England, we're doing pretty well out of the Illinois area. And every other coach in the country must be kicking himself for not thinking about Texas. Have to keep an eye on California, too.

[pfibiger]

I just read the USHR bit on Tony Romano, and I'll excerpt the best parts:
 
"Romano was the fourth leading scorer in the AJHL with a 34-29-63 line in 34 regular season games."
 
"Romano is not a physical player, but he is very quick and has a great stick. Sometimes he’s invisible on the ice; other times, he looks like one of the next great college stars."
 
"Other schools reported to be in the picture included Providence and Boston College."

[pfibiger]

I had emailed a guy who maintains scoring info for the CISAA (canadian school hockey) hockey league, looking for Colin Greening's stats. These don't count all the non-conf games/tourneys they play in, but it can at least be compared against the rest of his team and the conference:

17   Colin Greening   F   2005   15   13   12   25   8

he leads his team in both points and goals. he's 4th in the league in scoring, but the guy who sent it to me said that the stats are missing 2 UCC games.


As long as i'm reporting stats, here are some final regular season stats for incoming recruits (DiLeo and Milo are still playing in the RS):

2005
Matt Connors 43-17-18-35-18
Evan Barlow  53-36-39-75-62 (playoffs: 7-4-5-9)
Tyler Mugford 55-20-24-44-120(playoffs: 6-3-2-5)
Ryan Kindret 57-31-34-65-95
Colin Greening 15-13-12-25-8
Mike Kennedy  32-15-19-34-28 (playoffs: 14-10-5-15)
Jared Seminoff 48-6-18-24-66(playoffs: 6-0-2-2)
Taylor Davenport 49-7-11-18-86 (playoffs: 7-1-1-2)
Dan DiLeo G:35 W:22 L:7 OTL:6  GAA: 2.94 SV%: .913

2006
Justin Milo 54-27-17-44
Tony Romano 34-34-29-63