CHL better opportunity than NCAA for hockey players
Last Saturday a split-squad of Toronto Blue Jays played the Canadian junior baseball team in an exhibition game in Dunedin, Fla.
This has become a regular occurrence for the teenage players during their spring break.
The ironic thing of the game that is not lost on young Canadian hockey players is these teenage baseball players, the majority heading to United States colleges on baseball scholarships, do not jeopardize their scholarships by playing professional baseball players.
On the other hand, a younger Canadian hockey player of the same age would lose his scholarship opportunity if he played one shift with or against a major junior hockey team in the Canadian Hockey League.
Sixteen-year-old draftees to an OHL team have a 48-hour window to tryout before losing their scholarship eligibility.
The hypocrisy of this rule, obviously aimed at younger Canadian hockey players, is typical of the powerful, omnipotent NCAA, the governing body of college and university sports in the United States.
The NCAA has deemed the CHL as a professional hockey league because teams give players expense money while living away from home. The educational plans the CHL offer players pales in relation to the scholarships, perks and extras the NCAA offer their student-athletes, especially the high-profile basketball and football players.
One Canadian boy on a scholarship for athletics at one of the large American universities told me that they often shared the training facilities with the scholarship football and basketball players.
A number of these high-profile athletes openly flaunted the rules other scholarship athletes were closely held to, he said. They drove high-end cars loaned to them by alumni, were covered in free tattoos while other scholarship athletes lost their scholarship if they accepted a free dinner.
Last Saturday these young Canadian born baseball players, which incidentally included the 17-year-old son of the late Roy (Doc) Halliday, Braden, who was born in Toronto when Doc pitched for the Blue Jays, hobnobbed with truly pro players and this did not affect their scholarship possibilities.
This is not to degrade the opportunities the American scholarship system affords many Canadian student-athletes.
Today many Peterborough lacrosse players, both teenage girls and boys are receiving offers to American universities. Some are full rides, meaning essentially tuition, books and board is paid for; others are partial scholarships.
Canadian parents and their student athletes are in most cases well versed in the rules and pitfalls of a NCAA scholarship but due diligence is still needed.
That has not always been the case. In the past, there are some disturbing stories of scholarships being revoked for just minor reasons, including injuries.
As for hockey scholarships, there are fewer and fewer being made available to Canadian male players.
Today the American minor hockey system is producing more than enough high-calibre players to satisfy their scholarship quotas though the consequences in some NHL scouts’ perception is the calibre of NCAA is declining. Opportunities for Canadian girls do not seem to have the same constraints.
Unless a young Canadian male brings some unique and outstanding talent, few will receive offers and fewer a full ride.
For a young Canadian hockey player, the CHL is his best and quickest way to fulfil his hockey dreams. He gets to play a pro game, with a pro-like schedule and be well scouted by NHL teams.
He will soon learn if he has the potential to make a career in hockey and if it is not there he will have an education package that will allow him to get a degree and continue to play some good hockey at a Canadian university.