Its another beautiful spring morning isn’t it kids?! With USA Hockey National tournaments over, and most of the Hockey Canada playoffs either over or ending, its time for the bullshit season to officially begin! Seriously kids, there are camps opening this week, and recruiting for next year is in full swing!
So, I thought I would just run down a few examples of absolute lies for you kids when it comes to recruiting. You know, the ones that coaches tell you in order to get you to commit.
The best one is when a Tier III coach says that they are “just as good as the USHL, NAHL or Canadian Junior A”. Ummmmm yeah, that’s not true. Completely not true.
The USHL, NAHL and legitimate Hockey Canada sanctioned Junior A or Tier II hockey is better. Period.
That doesn’t mean that some Tier III teams don’t do a good job at getting kids to college. Some do a great job. But none do nearly as much as the USHL, NAHL and sanctioned Junior A. The numbers don’t lie.
Next in line is “The GMHL is a great league”. Yeah well anyone saying this should simply be seen as Judas doing his part for his thirty pieces of silver. The league is all about money, and if you go to this league and you give them all your money without getting much in return, you deserve it.
“We get great fan support”, like that has anything to do with recruiting? Guess what kids, scouts don’t care how big the crowds are in the barn. They don’t care how many tickets any team sells. They don’t make money off of anyone’s attendance. All they care about is finding the best players possible and fans have nothing to do with it.
“We are trying to build a championship team” and championships have absolutely nothing to do with development or advancement. If it did, only championship level teams would have players moving on to higher levels.
“We provide this, this, this, and this….” yeah, yeah, yeah. T-shirts, baseball caps, extra hoodies, and all the other crap teams say they give you is money wasted that should be spent on additional ice time. If you think all of that stuff is free, well don’t forget you’re spending an ass load of money to pay these teams and its built into the cost.
“We will move you up in the middle of the season if we can” this one is just priceless. So here’s the thing kids, if they wont put it in writing, don’t believe them. And if they wont put it in writing that they will let you move up without requiring compensation from the higher level team, don’t believe them. And if its a Tier III team or another pay to play team, and they wont put it in writing that your money will be refunded if you get called up, don’t believe them.
Be smart this spring and summer kids. I know hundreds and thousands of you are going to do the summer camp circuit and waste a ton of money based on misleading information. Lots of money being spent based on bullshit information. But hey, I played Midget A league hockey too, I may as well try out for the Tier II right?
Stay tuned kids, I am working on some good stuff right now. Gonna piss some people off, but hey, if you cant take criticism your in the wrong business.
David Wagner – The Angel Of Death – For Those Who Live Stupidly I salute You
*The Death Pool is a mix of comedy, and satire in connection with recent events. It is not an official report of current events although it may look as though the news is so accurate that it could one day happen or may be happening
