What High School Coaches are looking for in a Player?

One of the main priorities of a travel level youth hockey coach is to give his players a chance to play high school hockey. To do this the coach needs to understand what high school coaches are looking for. Certainly a youth coach also needs to know what a high school coach is not interested in. Coaches are not interested in what a youth player’s win and loss record was in squirts or pee-wees or points scored. Coaches are not interested in what “prestigious tournaments” (“prestigious” to whom?) a player participated in. Coaches are not interested in what others in a particular age group think of a player or how they may “rate” that player against his peers. Wayne Gretzky speaking at his induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame about what he would like parents of the future to say to their kids about him said:

“ I hope they’ll tell them that when I was a kid, they weren’t sure about my skating, that I wasn’t big enough, and that I wasn’t going to grow enough to make it.

“I want them to tell the kids, if they tell them about me, that I made it.

I want them to tell to tell them that I was an underdog who made it, that I didn’t have size, speed or strength –but that I made it.”“I’m proof that you’ve got a chance if you love it.”

The conclusion is this: It does not matter what the opinions of other people are (youth coaches, parents, business people etc.) to high school coaches. Their opinions are of no consequence. The HS coaches make up their own minds as to a player's abilities, strengths and weaknesses.

High school coaches are interested in players who have passion, commitment, respect for others and an honest work ethic. In conjunction with these elemental positive behavioral traits a coach would love to have a player that can execute his skills at the highest possible pace. To be able to skate at full speed while handling the puck, passing the puck or shooting the puck and be able to sustain speed in the cross-overs, as well as being able to make the good decisions at a high pace. If a high school coach during try-outs sees a player with these traits and abilities he can move past some of the fundamentals of the game into more complex and tactical elements. If the player(s) trying out lack in these areas then the coach has to go back and work in these areas. However, he should not have to if the travel level coach has done a creditable job, and he can do a creditable job if he knows what he needs to emphasize. Good high school coaches still will spend a fair amount of time on skill development, as do the colleges. Actually these higher-level teams probably spend more time per hour of time on ice than youth coaches do elevating their team’s skill level! As with most things we do this backwards, but often coaches have no choice when the players that they have are deficient in skill areas. Areas that should have been developed prior to their entry into high school. Still, high school coaches will work to elevate skills and spend a good portion of their practice doing so. Why, if the players coming to them may have good skills? The goal of most high school coaches is to send their players on to the next level. To give them the best chance to play in college. Just as a youth coaches’ goal should be to prepare his players to have the best chance that they can to play in high school.

In conjunction with acquisition of skill and a player’s approach to the game, youth coaches can assist in a player’s game knowledge and the terminology of the game. For example, do your players know the term reverse the flow or close support to name just two? Have they been versed in the concepts of time and space? If your players are educated as to the language of the game and what those concepts entail, they will be better prepared to enter into the high school hockey ranks.

MASSACHUSETTS HOCKEY
Here is what a few high school coaches are interested in:

Steve Dagdigian, St. Sebastian’s School
“ The first thing I look for is skills and then how they play the game. Is the player a competitor and does he have an idea (of how the game is played)?”

Mike Maher, Taft School
“ I look for players who demonstrate the same skills that you outlined (above) in terms of skills and players who have a respect for their family, who avoid the entitlement syndrome, and understands that they have to work for everything that they get, which is tougher to come by today.”

Ken Martin, Belmont Hill School
“ I’d like to see some players be creative. I’d like to get kids who can skate in a direction other than in a straight line. At some point you have to move out of your lane and you have to be able to think.”

“ I’d like to see some athleticism, that’s something that’s missing. It keeps kids from getting to the next level.”

“ Some players can’t do a drill because they don’t know how to listen, this is part of the learning process. You don’t want them to be robots.” “ There are too many players who look great because they are perimeter players, they want someone else to get the puck for them.”

Steve Jacobs, Cushing Academy
“ Athletes. Playing other sports helps them when they come to play hockey.”

“ Body language, body posture, you can see a natural love of the game and passion for the game. We look for individual character and commitment. Are they a team player, an unselfish person. To have skill at the top end at the higher level, to go beyond you need athleticism.”

“ I’d like to tell youth coaches it has to be fun, fun at any level. Let the players be creative and use their natural instincts. I enjoy watching a player with a feel for the game.”

Joe Mallen, Middlesex School
“ Character and competitiveness; a hunger to develop skills as a player. Otherwise a player has to have hockey sense, defined as ability to see the ice, read opponents, see openings and support their teammates. Hockey sense, speed and desire to play.”

Many years ago Eddy Robinson the head football coach at Grambling for about 50 years was asked about his coaching philosophy. He said,

“ Some people build roads, others drive over them. I prefer to build them.”