Its hard being an Adviser. I have been doing this a long time. Not too many our there that have been doing it longer. Those that have are good guys who have a ton of experience, and I have a feeling they will be sharing this with their clients.
Parents and Players need to just stop and pay close attention. These numbers come from the NCAA. Not from a coach who is trying to recruit you to his junior team. These are facts.
So all you 15, 16, 17 and 18 year old players who are in a panic need to take a deep breath and relax because the average age of commitment is almost 19 years old.
Players and Parent need to STOP trying to rush the process of commitment.
Something I tell all my clients is this;
“You do not chose your NCAA program and you do not chose when you attend that program. They will chose you and they will tell you.”
Its alright to have goals and dreams, but everyone really needs to take a deep breath and relax.
Even the best players do not commit too early as evidenced by these facts;
Yes. The Majority of the top NCAA players did not commit when they were under 18. 61% of the top NCAA players commit at 18 or older.
Breaking it down further you can see each hockey conference age of commitment;
Commitments are not a race to achieve. The facts support the argument for players who commit to early getting decommitted before enrolment.
What good is a verbal commitment when you never enroll in the school? How many 14, 15 and 16 year old players do not develop the way people thought? There are a whole lot of them.
This is a marathon. It takes years to build a body of work worthy of an NCAA commitment. It’s time for many people to just take a break and relax on trying to force things to happen that simply aren’t ready to happen.
When you are ready to make good decisions, you stop thinking and worrying about what everyone else is doing and you focus on what you are doing. You develop a plan that evolves year to year, and you put yourself in a position to experience success.
That is how NCAA commitments become reality and not something just talked and dreamt about.
Joseph Kolodziej – Adviser
Thanks to College Hockey Inc. for the data and graphics.
