IF I WERE KING: STOP THE PREP SCHOOL CASH GRAB FOR REPEATING GRADES It's always been just about the money.

If I were the King of Hockey, and I am not, one of the most important adjustments would be to stop the practice of hockey players repeating a grade so the school can gain some perceived competitive advantage with older players. Well, that and another $50,000+ notch on the financial belt.

The real problem comes to light when the player elects to seek an alternative path to graduation, that’s when the family discovers that their athletic prodigy may have earned limited credit hours for that expensive education.

Imagine the parental shock when one such family discovered their son earned less than a semester of academic credit for a full season / school year at $70,000. Apparently, that’s all part of the plan to keep players for five years instead of the normal four.

Then there are the hockey developmental disadvantages.

The appeal of the prep path is losing it’s luster when it becomes clear that players with a much higher game count are years ahead of the nineteen year old junior hockey rookie. What is really happening is that some of these programs preach hockey development successes from decades ago while the game has moved completely away from the concept.

Let’s compare a couple of 2007’s from New Jersey. Both play the same position, the same size, and general skill set as 16 year-olds. One set of parents paid $140,000 for the two seasons at Six Figure Academy while the other played a season in the United States Premier Hockey League before moving up to a Canadian Junior A team for last season.

How did their off-seasons go?

The prep kid toured the continent hitting thirteen various team camps and the Chowder Cup. Despite showing well at an NCDC main camp, he played with an Eastern Hockey League team near Boston that his prep coach lined up for him.

This is the same coach told the player’s family he did not need an advisor. I can’t help but wonder how much of the EHL player fee is getting kicked back to the prep school coach.

The other player did VERY well academically in an NCAA compliant virtual school, worked his socks off in the gym last summer, and earned a stall this past season on a decent team in Canada. After an impressive second season of junior hockey, it was easy for us to help generate interest from several North American Hockey League teams. That player is well prepared for the climb to the NAHL for next season.

Now which player is ahead of the game? The one that’s going to play with a lot of the same prep school kids in the EHL, or the NAHL prospect with 100+ junior games already played with two years of remaining eligibility?

Wake up and smell the coffee, the schools are literally telling colleges your son is a full-payer and not in need of any financial assistance. For that extra year at $70,000, he could have paid for two-years of college at a lot of good schools with club hockey programs.

Let’s face the reality here, that’s where most of those kids are going to end up anyway.

Don’t get caught in the trap. Let’s have a conversation before signing on the bottom line with any of these prep school or high dollar academy situations.