Please Help With Important Choice!!!

[Canadien2199]

Hey all,
I am currently a junior in high school who plays both roller and ice hockey in New Mexico. Neither are very big here but I do have a fair amount of skill. And the time to choose for a college is upon me. I have the test scores and grades to get into most school and I realize academics are very important but naturally I have some questions about hockey.

First, I was wondering what is the biggest inline hockey city in the U.S. in terms of like PIHA, NARCh, NCRHA ect... If i'm not a superstar like Tallo who was pursued by NCRHA teams, how should I go about choosing a school with a team? Should I go for a big hockey city or a small hockey city?

This is all very confusing to me so any tips and personal experience would be very helpful.
Thanks a lot

[DannyG]

Can-guy, follow the web sites...

Almost anywhere in New England, Minnesota/Michigan, or Colorado have both inline and ice...Most have NCAA varsity ice, at least club inline, as well as abundant rec for both...choose the school for academics...

although there are exceptions, and you'd think that your own ability would speak for itself, you will encounter a tremendous prejudice and bias vs. yourself as a serious ice player. Most ice schools truly believe that nobody can skate south of the Mason-Dixon line...

since you are from New Mexico, your future lies on wheels...I hate to be the harbinger of doom, but this is axiomatic fact...

If you don't believe this, check out the origins of 99.5% of the ice and inline national team sets over the past twenty-odd years...

[zipyaj]

I was wondering what is the biggest inline hockey city in the U.S. in terms of like PIHA, NARCh, NCRHA ect...

Canadien2199;
First, Danny G gives you some good advice.

As for your "biggest city" mix into your criteria, it would be unfair to some to use PIHA as a guage. For example, PIHA is not represented in Southern California (L.A., Orange County, San Diego, etc.). If you mix "big" cities for roller and ice into the mix, then one could not logically overlook this metroplex and its sea of clubs at all levels and selection of campuses with hockey programs.

A bit of reseach into the NCRHA (www.ncrha.org) and their listing of clubs is a good place to start in narrowing your selections. If you want to know where these players come from, some simple spreadsheet work can help you derive some other conclusions (too many to list here). One example is a quick look to NCRHA Division I, 1st Team selections of players, their schools and their hometowns:
Charlie Middleton - University of California, Irvine [home: So CA]
Brandon Barnette - Lindenwood University [home: So CA]
Tommy Bruce - Lindenwood University [home: NY]
Adam Clarke - University of Missouri St. Louis [home: MO]
G - James Cash - University of Missouri St. Louis [home: MO]

However, a far more important concern in making your decision is getting a good education first.

Good luck!
Jay

[MAmato]

If you're really into playing hockey and don't want to have to go through starting your own team, my suggestion is to go to the ncrha.org website and choose from there. Beyond that, I'd shy away from choosing where to go to school based on how good the team is. Hell, I'd shy away from going to school primarily based on whether they have a hockey team, but then, I've always been education-first.