How to Avoid 4 Common Recruiting Frustrations
While college recruiting for many student-athletes is a rewarding and educational experience, the process can also be extremely frustrating and overwhelming. unfortunately, this frustration often times results in too many student-athletes wondering “what could have been” and leaves everyone involved pointing the finger at someone else at the end of the process. Typically, there is no “one person” to blame and the common excuses are entirely understandable given the lack of experience most families have with recruiting. In the article below, NCSA Sports President Chris Krause, discusses how to avoid the four common recruiting frustrations.The good news is that due to changes in recruiting in the last decade, many of the common excuses for recruiting failure can be easily avoided…
Do any of the following statements sound familiar?
- “I play for a small high school and college coaches will never find me…”
- “I am stuck behind a talented, older student-athlete and will never get the playing time I need to be recruited…”
- “My high school team is 0-15 and they are killing my chances at getting noticed…”
- “My high school coach has done nothing to help me with the recruiting process…”
For those of you who have gone through the recruiting process as a parent or student-athlete, you have undoubtedly heard one of the above reasons for recruiting disappointment. While these factors certainly have an impact on a prospect’s recruiting process, they do not make or break success the way they once did.
As a minor disclaimer…I thoroughly appreciate why these sentiments would frustrate a student-athlete and like I said, they will have an affect on the process, but….
Think about all the advances in technology and how they have made the exchange of information between recruits and college coaches much easier than in the past. The internet has opened new lines of communication, created efficient distribution channels, and quite simply, changed the way college coaches recruit. The recruiting playing field is more level than ever…you just need to know how to take advantage of it!
Let’s address the traditional recruiting frustrations one at a time…
“My high school coach has done nothing to help me with the recruiting process…”
Although we have discussed why your high school coach cannot get you a scholarship in the past, it’s certainly worth reviewing again because every year it seems to be a common source of contention. 20-30 years ago, the high school coach played a much different role in college recruiting. Much of this role centered on the access to game footage.
Back in those days, high school coaches were almost always the only ones who had film, which forced college coaches to partner with them. College coaches would plan recruiting trips that included stops at high schools that allowed them to review film. This forged relationships that did in fact have a strong influence on recruiting.
Today, college coaches have a variety of ways to review film. Families can now film their own games with affordable video equipment and distribute it directly to college coaches. While the high school coach can still be very helpful in this part of the process, they are no longer required. As a result, any authority they might have had over a college coach has been greatly diminished.
Make sure to develop a strong relationship with your high school coach, because they can serve as a great mentor and a reliable reference, but keep in mind the average coach has fewer than 5 contacts with the college coaching community. Recruiting responsibility ultimately lies with the student-athlete and no one else!
“I play for a small high school and college coaches will never find me…”
This seems to be the recruiting frustration most affected by the developments in technology. Simply put, geographic location used to have a huge impact on college recruiting based on the difficulty coaches had in receiving information about prospects from rural areas.
However, with the internet and subsequent recruiting resources that have emerged, geographic location can be overcome to a certain degree with even the slowest of internet connections. There are countless websites and online avenues that a student-athlete can utilize to gain exposure to college coaches.
Think about this scenario…
The year is 1980 and a student-athlete is interested in sending their information to 50 college coaches. Here is the process they would have to go through: First they would have to create a physical, paper athletic and academic resume. The next step would most likely include a trip to the local library to search through a college guide to find the addresses of each college program on the list. Once the list of addresses had been gathered, the student-athlete would have to put together a mailing list and send it out through the traditional mail…Seems rather tedious, doesn’t it? To top it off, since the college coaches had most likely never heard of that student-athlete before, who knows if the information would have been reviewed at all?
Today, a student-athlete can create an athletic and academic resume on line in a matter of minutes. They can then find the email addresses of most the college coaches in the country online and then put together an email campaign and send the information out. Now that sounds a little better, doesn’t it?
“My high school team is 0-15 and they are killing my chances at getting noticed…”
While there are unquestionably some exposure advantages that can be had from playing for a state powerhouse with a tradition for winning, even student-athletes at a weaker quality high school program can gain exposure. Using the internet as we have talked about and having a properly edited highlight and skills video can go a long way towards overcoming this obstacle.
In the past, playing for an awful team might have truly hindered a student-athlete’s potential to play at the next level. However, a student-athlete can now generate the initial exposure using the internet, and a college coach is ultimately looking for a qualified prospect regardless of the team’s success. If a college coach were to watch film on a baseball player who is throwing 90 mph or a quarterback who can throw the ball 65 yards, they are going to recruit that student-athlete regardless of how many wins the high school team has.
“I am stuck behind a talented, older student-athlete and will never get the playing time I need to be recruited…”
This one is tough. Yes, playing behind a quality athlete who might have the advantage of seniority can have an impact on a student-athlete’s recruiting. However, if the student-athlete who is on the receiving end of this lack of playing time is truly a qualified student-athlete, there is no reason they cannot distribute their information to college coaches. It will be important to capture any varsity game footage possible, even if its limited, and combine that with the athletic and academic information that college coaches would be interested in to get your name on their recruiting list. This way, come senior year, the college coaches will already know your name, you will have started a recruiting relationship, and they can make sure to monitor your progress. Waiting to get involved with college coaches until you begin playing every second of the game will significantly hamper the recruiting process.
Just as example of how you can use the resources available to overcome the playing time issue, here is a wonderful recruiting story that recently happened.
We began working with a senior football player out of Texas. Due to quality competition, this student-athlete was not even starting at the varsity level as a senior. Although he received playing time, mostly late in the game when the outcome was not in question, based on his size and his willingness to pursue opportunities at all levels, our football department felt like he was someone we could help. Using the limited game footage, we introduced him to a number of DII and DIII colleges. Within weeks, this student-athlete, who hardly played at the high school level, had received two DII scholarship offers.
Does this happen to every backup varsity athlete? No. Is recruiting tougher if you are not playing full time as a Junior or Senior? Yes. However, if you are realistic in the level of competition you can play and you take advantages of all the resources that are available online and through technology, you can overcome many of the difficulties recruits once faced.
Finally, your high school athletic experience no longer defines your recruiting success. Club experience is now more accessible and more necessary than ever in many sports. College coaches love club experience. They view this experience as a higher level of competition and in some sports might not even recruit a student-athlete who lacks it. Sports such as soccer, volleyball, softball, basketball, and baseball all have strong club and travel team presences. Involvement with these types of teams in many cases will trump the high school experience all together, if not at least make up for a poor quality high school team.
The recruiting process will indubitably cause some sort of frustration for even blue-chip recruits. That reality is an unfortunate product of the current system. However, families should be optimistic that there are resources readily available, if they are willing to be proactive, to help get past a few of the traditional roadblocks that have plagued recruits in the past.
Editor’s Note: Special thanks to Chris Krause from NCSA Sports for this special article.
How Do I Get Noticed?
How do I get noticed? This is one of the most frequently asked questions in hockey. There is no simple answer. You must come to the realization that there are several alternatives and routes a hockey player can take in achieving his or her goal.
The informed student athlete has a better chance of reaching the optimum hockey opportunity. Consider that there are well over 6,100 midget, junior, and high school teams in North America. Coaches, scouts, and recruiters cannot possibly cover all the teams and leagues. The NCAA restricts the number of annual contacts a college coach can have with a player. Prior to your senior year, a college coach cannot initiate contact with you, but he can observe or evaluate you seven (7) times. During your senior year, you can have personal contacts with a coach plus four (4) additional evaluations.
There are certain parts of the country where college and junior teams find most of their players. If you are not in a geographic “hockey hot bed,” your chances of exposure diminish. Your current coach can have significant impact on your future opportunities. To improve your chances:
- Make yourself academically attractive. Programs are looking for the student athlete.
- Select and play for a coach who has a history of moving players to the next level.
- Contact programs you are interested in - your coach should be your strongest advocate.
- Contact alumni of programs; ask them to speak on your behalf.
- Look for teams/leagues that have a history of moving players to the next level.
- Participate in USA Hockey district and national camps.
- Participate in USA Hockey district and national tournaments.
- Investigate Chicago Showcase, Hockey Night in Boston, Top Prospect camps.
- Try out for affiliate or district teams that play in elite tournaments.
- Attend summer camps that offer the best exposure and training.
Good Luck!
Editor’s Note: Special thanks to Al Bloomer for the above article.
The College Admissions Process: Advice for Parents
When they were high school seniors back in the seventies or eighties, most baby boomers walked into the SAT exam without any test preparation and sent off but a handful of college applications. Now parents of high school students, those same boomers are discovering that, when it comes to their own children’s pursuit of the perfect-match college, things are not as simple as they were back in the day.
Indeed, many parents of current high school students are realizing that the intense competition for coveted slots at the most sought-after colleges rules out the casual approach that they took way back when.
As selective college admissions have become increasingly competitive due to the swelling number of students who hope to enroll at top-tier American colleges and universities, applicants have sought ways of boosting their odds of acceptance by seeking help in both standardized test preparation and the college application process. To be sure, many parents are discovering that out-of-school test prep tutoring and college counseling have become the norm in their children’s school communities. Of course, these same parents are also discovering that an often-befuddling spectrum of test prep and college counseling services has emerged in recent decades.
A pair of recent articles in the Wall Street Journal draws attention to the dramatically altered landscape of college admissions and the challenges of wandering across it for the first time. One article, entitled “SAT Prep: Issac Says No to Outside Help,” presents one family’s attempt to make sense out the new rules of the game. The article presents a father’s proud consternation that his son has said “no” to outside help of any kind despite his father’s assumption that precisely such help would be best for his college-bound child. The other, entitled “Families Seek Help with College,” discusses the brisk business that test-prep companies and independent college consultants are currently enjoying despite, or perhaps because of, the troubled economy. What is the right thing for a parent to do?
Although the article about the student named Issac who refused any help implies that he chose the high road of “personal responsibility and a touch of DIY ethics,” the other article makes the case that some families invest in such outside help in order to increase their children’s chances of gaining admission to one of “the top-tier schools, many of which offer the most generous aid packages.” Reductive arguments about the ethics and socio-economics of seeking help in the college admissions process do not necessarily illuminate - and certainly do not exhaust - the issue.
Of course, when Issac said no to test-prep help, Issac was making a decision that may well have been the best decision for him. Clearly, some students may be motivated enough to prepare on their own. Certainly, some might need the structure of a test-prep class and others might be best served by a one-on-one tutoring program. A colleague who is a college counselor at a nearby prep school offers the analogy of how gym memberships are used by different people: some people are motivated enough to just go to the gym and work out on their own, some might need to enroll in a cardio-training class, and others would be best served by one-on-one sessions with a personal trainer. The question lingers: What is the right thing for a parent to do?
Pragmatically speaking, we recommend that parents approach the college admissions process by further informing themselves. As concerns the specific issues raised in the two articles from the Wall Street Journal that we cited above, we advise:
- That parents begin a conversation with their child’s college counselor at school no later than February of the junior year in order to develop as realistic a sense as possible of how their child’s broader profile (transcripts, test scores, co-curriculars, etc.) compares to the profiles of students admitted in recent years to the schools that their child wants to attend.
- That parents use their child’s December PSAT results to assess if test prep might be wise and, if so, what type of prep would be best suited to their child’s individual needs: Is their child motivated like Issac? Might an online course be effective? Would a classroom experience be more productive? Are there certain areas of weakness that need more work than others? Etc.
- That parents be certain to carefully vet any test-prep program that they are considering for their child in order to ensure that it offers an approach to the tests that meets their child’s specific needs while also meeting best practices guidelines established by the National Association of College Admissions Counselors:
- Familiarity with test question format
- Familiarity with test administration procedures
- Alignment with skills necessary to master college preparatory coursework
- Instruction in basic study habits and skills
Editor’s note: Special thanks to NCSA Sports as well as Courtney Federle, PhD, for the above article. Federle, from the University of California, Berkeley, has taught at the University of Chicago and is currently working as a teacher and curriculum developer at Academic Approach.
Q&A: How to Obtain Scholarship Money
Our reader, Lori was looking for advice on how to obtain money for scholarships. She posed this question to our experts: "How can I obtain scholarship funds to pay for my child's hockey?"Answer: “Wouldn’t it be great if our kids could play this great game for free? Most parents love watching their children skate, enjoy seeing them mature as leaders in the locker room, and don’t even mind the cross country drives to rinks with arctic temperatures. When it comes time to buy new goalie pads or pay travel hockey dues, however, we start to wonder why our children couldn’t have pursued a sport like track, where all you need is a pair of tennis shoes! Despite the high cost associated with our favorite sport, there are ways to turn your child’s passion into profit when it comes time for college.
The first step is to educate your family about college hockey. There are 58 Division I men’s ice hockey programs and 35 for women. Although fully funded teams offer 18 full scholarships, not all teams are fully funded and with 35,955 (men) and 7,350 (women) high school aged players competing for the same college roster spots, a Division I scholarship is hard to come by. Many people believe the myth that Division III colleges and universities do not offer scholarships. The fact is that although Division III institutions can not offer athletic scholarships they can and do offer academic and merit based scholarships as well as need based financial aid. Student-athletes who excel during high school have an advantage when it comes to the recruiting process because they will be eligible for academic and merit awards, and prospects that combine size, strength and speed with good grades and test scores are hot commodities for college coaches.
In order to receive a scholarship you must understand the process, know the rules and set appropriate expectations. For example, college coaches rarely “discover” prospects. You need to make yourself known by using credible sources to get your name in front of as many college coaches as possible. You will also need to compete at the highest levels. In today’s competitive world of college recruiting the average college freshman has played at least one year of juniors hockey. It is rare that a high school player jumps straight into the college arena so you should begin to map out your future as early as freshman year of high school. By taking ownership of your hockey career early on you will set yourself apart from your peers and give yourself the best possible chance of receiving a scholarship.”
Editor’s Note: Special thanks to NCSA Recruiting Coach Director and former Yale University Women’s Ice Hockey Captain, Lisa Strasman for answering the question. Lisa has helped guide thousands of high school student-athletes through the recruiting process. For more information about NCSA, please visit their website: http://www.ncsasports.org/
If you have a question, we would love to help. Please email us and we will do our best to answer your question.
How to Set Recruiting Boundaries for Your Athlete
It’s important during the recruiting process to set boundaries for your young athlete. Some of the ways you can set boundaries include: limit the number of interviews your player does with the media (newspapers, websites, etc.), don’t give out his or her cell phone number, and ensure your player’s coach is being neutral.
As a parent, it’s ultimately up to you to protect your athlete and ensure the recruiting process goes smoothly.
Editor’s Note: Special thanks to Wayne Mazzoni for this recruiting tip. For more keys on how to maximize your player’s exposure, take a look at: The Athletic Recruiting and Scholarship Guide.
Recruiting Advice – Early Testing Is Better
If your child is considering a college with standardized testing requirements, have them take the test(s) as soon as possible. Scholarship offers can come at the beginning of a high school student’s senior year, if not sooner.
Coaches like to know that their choice recruits can pass admission standards; if your child has already passed the required tests, coaches might be more likely to go ahead and extend an offer.
Parent Alert: 12 Secrets to Recruiting Success
The recruiting process requires the involvement of the whole family. Your support, guidance, advice, love and patience will make a world of difference in your son or daughter achieving success in the recruiting game.
As your high school athlete is striving toward independence, this is one of the biggest decisions he or she will ever have to make. And believe it or not, that athlete in your life values your opinion more than anyone else's. It is important that you communicate often and effectively with your teenager. That differs by child and the parent can fill a crucial role by recognizing the best ways to connect with the teen. The family will need to stick together through the ups and downs of the sports scholarship search process.
The athlete is the one most in control of his or her recruiting process. But a strong, supportive "Dream Team" can be a huge support every step along the way. This is where you, the parents, come into the game and this should be your "12 Secrets" game plan:
1. Be supportive without being pushy. Do not push your child so hard to play for a top team that, in the end, he feels he failed you if he does not get an offer. Your pushing could affect your child adversely for the rest of his life. There is a fine line between firm support and being an additional stress factor. Check yourself. On the other hand, do not be so easy-going that you miss opportunities to help your child fulfill his dream of becoming a college athlete.
2. Be sure that it is your child's dream to play in college–not yours. Let him know that, if he decides not to play at the end of this process, you will support him 100% percent in that decision. Remember, he is going to college to get an education first!
3. Be realistic about your child's skill level. You need to seek objective opinions from outside sources, such as college coaches, former or current college players, specialists in a specific sport and more
4. Keep the focus on academics. Education is the first priority to consider when choosing a college. Your child will be an athlete for only a short time, but he will need a good education to get through the rest of life. Injuries can and will happen in college sports, so he needs to be content with his college choice even if not playing. Encourage your teen to keep his high school GPA as high as possible because, many times, academics is the determining factor for a coach who must choose between two athletes with similar talent. Meet with your child's academic advisor to make sure he is on track to graduate and within requirements of the NCAA. Once your athlete is in college, you must remind him that getting good grades from the start is important. You do not want him to spend seven semesters trying to make up for the poor GPA he "earned" first semester of his freshman year. This is a very common problem for freshmen … both athletes and non-athletes.
5. Do the research necessary on camps, recruiters, schools, coaches and special programs. Some "elite athlete" activities are a waste of time and money, while others are well worth it. Find out the details on any "invitation" that your child receives to attend a "selective" camp, etc. Many of these events are held purely to make money and will not give your athlete a higher level of training or the exposure needed in front of college coaches. The key is for the athlete to display his skills in front of as many coaches and scouts as possible, so that he will have many prospects from which to choose. Talk to other parents, coaches and athletes about their experiences with various camps. Do not be afraid to ask!
6. Visit as many colleges as you possibly can with your child. The top regret of the former college athletes who we surveyed was that they did not visit more colleges before making their decision. Keep your options open. Have a travel schedule for the remaining years of high school and the summers between. Plan your visits around tournaments and family vacations. The more universities you visit, the more confident your child will feel about his final college choice.
7. Be proactive in helping your child formulate his "Top 25 Target List" of colleges. Athletes need their parents' input. Take time to discuss the options with your teenager. Be honest about what you can afford if no scholarship is offered. Decide what factors are important to you as a family when looking for a college. Search the Internet for information on each college and their sports program.
8. Keep track of important dates and deadlines. Your child is much too busy being a student and athlete to keep track of all the important dates. You must help monitor the dates for ACT/SAT applications and test dates, college applications and notification dates, signing dates, scholarship application deadlines, financial aid deadlines, etc. If these dates are overlooked, you could be bypassing thousands of dollars worth of scholarship money.
9. Keep an accurate filing system. You will need to keep records and files for your child's pertinent information and for each of the 20-25 colleges on his target list. Sports Scholarship Pro has developed an easy and organized method of filing information. This system will set you up for success and save you an immense amount of stress and frustration.
10. Take an objective look at your behavior during your child's sporting events. Are you positive and uplifting in your comments from the sidelines? Do you support the coach and his decisions when speaking with other parents? Do you embarrass your child with your antics and tantrums? Honestly evaluate your behavior to ensure that you are a help, not a hindrance, to your athlete's success. College coaches will not look positively on an athlete whose parents are ill-behaved. Coaches have been known to stop considering a star athlete if the parent's behavior is over the top. You could cost your child a scholarship in the end.
11. Know the rules of recruiting. Become very familiar with the NCAA Guide for College-Bound Student-Athletes. It can be found at www.ncaa.org. The rules change every year, and it is up to you to be aware of the regulations so that you do not inadvertently jeopardize your child's eligibility to play in college. Division I and II rules are quite strict, while Division III, NAIA and NJCAA are more relaxed. Be informed!
12. Keep everything in prospective. It is easy to get swept away by all the attention that coaches may shower on your child. Keep in mind they are giving the same attention to many other athletes. It is important that you and your child remain in control of the recruiting process and you do not let it carry you away. Stay grounded and focus on what your priorities are for a college program. Try to look past the hype and keep your options open. Do not put all your eggs in one basket. Players who do this usually end up with no scholarship.
Editor's note: Thanks to Sports Scholarship Pro for this valuable article!
10 Must-Dos on Your Recruiting Checklist
Here's a checklist you won't want to misplace or ignore. Marking off each item will move a prospective a long way toward success:
1. Maintain academic excellence throughout high school. Grades can make or break your chances when it comes to staying on a coach's "A" List.
2. Objectively evaluate your talent. Parents and coaches can sometimes inflate ability and skill levels. Be realistic! Seek impartial opinions. There will always be recruits who are more talented and recruits who are less talented than you. A good attitude with a willingness to learn and improve, combined with being a team player, will get you farther than just excellent skills.
3. Develop your dream team. You must surround yourself with people who will help you during this scholarship search process. You must establish a game plan and work together to get it done. Parents are your top ally, and they will be doing a lot of the work for you. Coaches and academic counselors will also be very helpful. You must make them aware of your goal and enlist them in helping you succeed. This will be your "dream team."
4. Initiate the recruiting process with all of the colleges on your "Top 25 Target List." When a university sends you a letter inviting you to its camp, it does NOT mean that you are being recruited. They send out hundreds, sometimes thousands, of brochures in order to fill their camps and make money. Unless you tell the school that you are interested in its program, the school will not know.
5. Promote yourself. After you make the initial contact with a university coach, you must continue to promote yourself on a regular basis. It's not about ego, it's about being an advocate for yourself. Keeping the coaches posted on your latest achievements and schedule can give you the edge over other athletes competing for your same position.
6. Continue working on developing your skills. Coaches love to see that their prospective athletes are trying to improve their game. Just playing on your school team is not enough. Club teams, travel teams, special tournaments, private lessons and conditioning programs are all important in raising your skills to the collegiate level.
7. Register with the NCAA Eligibility Center. If you want to participate in NCAA Division I or Division II programs, you MUST be registered with and certified by the NCAA Eligibility Center. Your eligibility is based on grades, core course requirements, ACT/SAT scores and so on. The colleges must request information regarding your eligibility directly from the Eligibility Center. If you have not registered, they cannot continue to recruit you–plain and simple. Go to their website for more information. https://web1.ncaa.org/eligibilitycenter/common/.
8. Respond promptly to requests for profiles or questionnaires from colleges. You may receive a request to fill out a questionnaire from a university that you know you are not interested in attending. Please take the time to respond to their request and thank them for their interest. The college coaching world is a very tightly knit group, and they will share recruiting information. If they have info on an athlete who they do not have a place for, often, they will pass the name along to a colleague who might be recruiting for that position.
9. Ask questions. Lots and lots of questions! You want to be informed about the colleges, the programs, the players, and the coaches. Having enough information will help you make the best college choice for you.
10. Trust your gut. You will know when the college is right for you.
Editor's note: Thanks to Sports Scholarship Pro for the valuable article!
Top 10 Mistakes To Avoid When Pursuing a Scholarship
We can all learn from mistakes. Here are the most common ones made by student-athletes (and, to some extent, their familes) when pursuing sports scholarships. Avoid this top 10 and your opportunities will increase dramatically:
1. The athlete not understanding the importance of good grades.
2. Waiting too long to get started.
3. Not having a plan.
4. Having too few schools on the athlete's target list.
5. Assuming college coach will find the player.
6. Assuming a high school or club coach will get a scholarship for the athlete.
7. Assuming athletic scholarships pay for everything.
8. Feeling college coaches will think they are pushy if the athlete contacts them.
9. Not taking enough visits before senior year in high school.
10. Believing everything is true that coaches say about their programs and the athlete's future with them.
Editor's note: Thanks to Sports Scholarship Pro for this valuable article!
USA Coach in Chief: Many Opportunities after High School
As a coach and hockey administrator that has worked with juniors for the last 20 of his 50 years in the sport, Al Bloomer is an advocate for making the most of a young athlete's playing opportunities.Each year, Coach Bloomer makes major presentations to provide information regarding various options available to a hockey player that has completed or is about to complete his/her high school education. For eligibility purposes, the NCAA expects the student-athlete to graduate from high school at 18 years of age.
From Coach in Chief Bloomer: “I have been involved in hockey as a player, coach or administrator for over 50 years. For the last 20 years I have been directly involved with players between the ages of 15 and 20 years old. When it comes to choosing options for their hockey future, I am continually troubled by how poorly prepared and uninformed many players and their parents are.
"I believe parents and players should begin to think seriously about hockey opportunities when the player is 12 to 14 years old. Although there may be optimism concerning potential when players are 12 and under, their potential cannot be realistically evaluated until they reach the age of maturity. All have dreams and expectations - but players and parents need to make informed and realistic decisions You can answers if you know where to look. The challenge is to be realistic about your hockey abilities and proactive when planning your hockey future. As your skills develop to higher A levels, you begin to think about your options."
Some typical questions:
- What are my hockey opportunities after high school?
- How do I determine what is best for me?
- What are some determining factors?
- What are my chances?
- How can I find out where I fit?
- How and where do I get noticed?
- How important are academics?
- What role does my coach play?
- Should I actively pursue opportunities or wait until opportunity knocks?
For answers to these questions and more insight and inspiration from Coach Bloomer, download his two valuable presentations (you will need Adobe Reader to open the files):
Links to Presentations (pdf):
Opportunities in Hockey - Special Report
Achieve the Dream - Special Presentation
