A new study from College Hockey Inc showed the common pathways and decision-making steps girls hockey players have taken to reach NCAA Division 1 women's hockey. Here's a look.
A new study from College Hockey Inc. looked at the pathways and decision making process most girls follow heading to NCAA women's hockey.
The process can be challenging, especially for those not considered among the top few dozen recruits in a cohort, including navigating how to choose a school, communicate with teams, or even get spotted.
For many athletes, the recruiting process is long and winding, which this new study attempted to shed light on, with College Hockey Inc examining trends in "average commitment age, the process itself, development paths that included playing boys hockey, multi-sport athletes, and more."
The study included responses from roughly one-quarter of the current NCAA Division 1 women's hockey player-pool from 24 schools spanning all five conferences and athletes from eight nations, and all grades and positions.
For players, the process often begins June 15, the opening day players can be contacted by NCAA coaches with College Hockey Inc finding 55% of respondents who ended up in NCAA Division 1 hockey received a call on the opening day, and that the average age to make a commitment for girls and women's hockey players was 17.04 for skaters and 17.32 for goaltenders.
Of the 55% who received an opening day call however, more than half of those players ultimately did not commit to the schools that called them on that day.
As College Hockey Inc wrote, "Recruiting is a long process, and both the player and the program need time to determine whether there is a true fit."
The study also saw that many players needed to be their own advocate in the process with 81% of players reaching out to schools themselves.
Looking At The Pathways
While the basic numbers of how many were called and recruited provide insight, players took very different pathways to get to the NCAA.
The vast majority of athletes continued playing multiple sports at the varsity level in high school with 72% saying they were multi-sport athletes. This season, the New York Sirens lost top draft pick Mackenzie Webster. Webster played for Ohio State in the NCAA before she was drafted, but chose to pursue USA's national field hockey team. Other top NCAA and PWHL players have backgrounds in soccer, track and field, volleyball, basketball, and many other sports.
While multi-sport athletes were common, so was the participation of future NCAA women's hockey players in boys' hockey growing up. Of their respondents, 43% were playing girls' hockey at age 10, 62% by age 13, and 81% of girls had moved to all-girls' teams by age 14.
You can read the full study below:
