College Inline Hockey List?

[KenFas]

You know an interesting question came up by one of my 17 under players from Our travel team the other day. You see he is going to college next year and is in search of a school to go to and wants to continue playing Hockey while in school. While hockey is not the #1 criteria for picking his college of choice he would like to know what programs are good and what ones are floundering in minor club status. As I started to do some research of various college web-pages for inline hockey many web-sites are worthless. For every Michigan State roller hockey club there are 100's of clubs where no information about trying out is available. I think a great start for growth of our sport is a collegiate directory. Listing facilities, number of teams, where they compete, who is the contact, the coach, and maybe a little info on the system they run. Wouldn't this allow for coaches of elite high school graduating players to provide info to first class collegiate programs? I know personally I would love to get to know the college coaches in the southeast and east coast and pass on info regarding college programs for our upper teir players. Heck in Florida there is a ton of talented players who would like to continue playing top rated hockey in a strong college club program. Am I missing something? Just a thought.

[poptart]

There are alot of strong college hockey programs on the east coast...I play for East Carolina...Our team web site is basic and out dated...due in part that we dont have anyone on the team who has the knowledge to up date our web site that often...We do however have a league web site with all 10 of our teams in it....(ACRHA.com) check it out....I know the CRHL has a web site(not sure of the address)...that has links to all there region teams....So you might want to check on that one as well......Hope this helps....Also I know alot of schools in FLA have good programs.....You just have to search around the net to find the web sites....Good luck

[SpeedDemon]

I would bet almost every D-1 and 2 school will have at least a rec roller hockey league formed, much like ice hockey at colleges.

However, as already stated, you can visit <A HREF="http://www.crhl.net" target="_new">http://www.crhl.net</A> to find a complete listing of divisions and thus teams that compete in the "official" league.

SD

[KenFas]

Thanks for the info, I've been to the site several times and didn't see the teams listed until today when I saw the tab for related sites. Thanks again.

Ken Fasnacht
JaxJokers

[John_S_Osborne]

Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to "recruit" players for the Drexel University Roller Hockey Club at the USA Hockey Inline High School Nationals in Downingtown, PA. I will tell you the same exact thing I told all the players and parents I talked to there.

Make your college decision based on your future. Academics, job prospects, you name it. Then, think about roller hockey. Even if the school you go to or want to go to doesn't have a team participating in one of the CRHL's regions, then that doesn't stop you from going there and either organizing a club from scratch (not that hard) or oraganizing an exisiting recreational club to become intercollegiately competitive.

For the most part, I talked to people more about Drexel's strengths as a school (one of the top engineering schools around with great cooperative education program) then I did about our roller hockey program (which is equally impressive).

Also, I very much like your idea for a college roller hockey directory. This might be something to mention to the folks at collegerollerhockey.com, because it's a great idea. One of the biggest problems I have had in my "diplomatic" efforts to find other programs around the Philadelphia area to find teams to participate in our local league is just finding contacts at the respective schools. Once I find one person at a school who wants to play, I can pretty much walk them through creating their club and the rest of the business of getting organized.

All in all, good post. Keep encouraging your players to apply themselves in the classroom and on the rink, and I'm sure they'll have no problem finding the school that fits them academically and can provide a good roller hockey experience as well.

- John S. Osborne
Secretary, Drexel U. Roller Hockey Club
LAL Director, ECRHA

[KenFas]

Thank you for the follow up on this post. I want you to know how much it means to our program to have a source of info to provide our young players who want to continue playing in college, It has provided us the opportunity to attract players to our program because we care what happens to them after they move on. I encourage all coaches to follow up and help provide info about colleges as wellas any opportunities after they leave your program. Good Luck top all.