The responsibility starts with you – A message to parents and players about education an the CCHL
Why is the CCHL so successful in getting their players to University and College? It starts with you, the players. All are required to maintain academic profiles online, the kind that attract the attention of University and College scouts. You also need to give your team academic advisor monthly academic information so that monthly award nominations can be made and also so that if there are any problems they can be flagged early. Players and the team academic advisors work together to ensure that courses are chosen appropriately at the high school level and the University and college level while playing in the CCHL to maximize future opportunities. It is a partnership that starts with you the player and is enhanced through the commitment of a team of academic advisors. But the onus is on you to take advantage of the opportunities presented to you by the CCHL. Do everything you can to keep eligible to play and to be attractive to NCAA and USports recruiters. For more information on keeping eligible and the opportunities both at USports and NCAA we have a comprehensive list of information on our league website which includes an academic guide prepared y the CJHL (Canadian Junior Hockey League) it can be accessed at: https://www.thecchl.ca/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2022/10/CJHLAcademicGuide.pdf
Here are a few key tips for you.
- Register with College hockey Inc. It is your responsibility to fill it in. http://collegehockeyinc.com/register.php. All players are given access to an online system that is frequently used by NCAA (US universities) coaches and scouts. We have link to this on the CCHL website at http://www.thecchl.ca/academic-letter-registration
- Provide your academic information early to your team’s academic advisor. It’s important that you provide academic information including marks, transcripts and awards as well as hockey information. Work towards developing a hockey profile. During showcase, the league and your team will be handing out to the NCAA and CIS scouts team and league academic profiles and the more complete your profile is the better for you. A well written profile does attract interest. College Hockey Inc. (who we work very closely with) has a great article about hockey resumes http://collegehockeyinc.com/articles/2011/12/10-steps-great-hockey-resume.php
- Take the right courses. You can only play NCAA or USports hockey if you take the right courses (and stay eligible – more on that later). Take the NCAA division one route, any player who wants a US hockey scholarship will need to be cleared by NCAA clearinghouse (https://web3.ncaa.org/ecwr3/ ). There are 16 courses that you will have to take in high school and not at the college level to qualify for NCAA hockey. Clearinghouse http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/eligibility_center/Student_Resources/IE_Brochure.pdf specifies as of 2024 the courses you must have taken to be eligible, all of which must be taken at the appropriate academic level (not college level):
- Some Universities in the USA require that you take the SAT or ACT. To play NCAA division 1 hockey. While the number of universities requiring these are decreasing if ones you are interested in requires it you are advised to write them early. More information about the SAT can be found at https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org while ACT information is available at https://www.act.org The SAT and ACTs can be taken multiple times.
- If you are in grade 12 apply for University or College on time. It is usual for a player to start their NCAA or USports hockey career a year or two after graduating high school. As a league we encourage all our players to continue taking courses and encourage our grade 12 students who hope to continue playing in the CCHL in the following year to apply to university and college programs in the Ottawa area (or online programs). This means that those in grade 12 need to apply through the Ontario Universities Applications Centre (www.ouac.on.ca) by their deadline (January 15 2025 this year). Getting admitted to a degree program on a full-time status gives you in a sense first choice of courses and course schedules so it makes it easier to pick classes that work with your hockey schedule. Although you would be admitted to a full-time program, you would only enroll on a part-time basis (we recommend two courses per term) to maintain full NCAA eligibility.
- If you are University or College age (high school graduate) take the right number of courses. The league strongly encourages its university or college age players who are high school graduates to continue to take courses while they are playing hockey. These courses may even count towards the player’s degree and course requirements should you get an NCAA or USports offer thereby reducing the course requirements. However, for NCAA eligibility purposes if you take too many courses (defined as being a full-time student) then you lose a year of eligibility. This means you need to be classified as part time student if you wish to keep all your years of NCAA eligibility (4 years of playing eligibility and 5 years of eligibility). There are two ways for you to get registered and take courses as a university or College student – one is as a degree student the other is as a special student. I will use the two local Universities as an example of this. Degree students apply to the specific program that they are interested in (well before the hockey year starts) and if accepted then choose courses at the appropriate time within that program. Depending on the program that you are accepted into you can be enrolled part time. My son (who went on to play NCAA Division 1 hockey and then pro hockey afterwards) when in the CCHL was in the University of Ottawa’s Engineering program and taking two courses each term. Degree students have special access to courses only accessible to students in that degree program. The other type of student, special student is more common in our league. A special student registers at the University and if special student status is granted, they get access to courses that are open for special students. Unfortunately, special students generally have access to less courses than do degree students and do not always have optimal course times. The league has contacts at Ottawa University, Carleton University and Algonquin College and we can help you through this process. It is up to you, the CCHL player to register and sign up for courses in a timely manner. The league also has players taking courses at Algonquin College. They have an excellent set of online courses which staggered start dates meaning that you can register to start classes in September or October or November etc. Players also take courses at La Cite Collegiale which is the largest French-language College in Ontario. We have players taking courses at St. Lawrence College and even in some U.S. Colleges (State University of New York campuses are just over the border). There are also players taking online courses through a variety of Canadian universities (for example Athabasca University) and U.S. Universities. Online courses are a great option for our players but if you turn 21 during the current hockey year there are special rules around online education that you should discuss with your team’s academic advisor.
- Know the rules especially if you are turning 21 during this hockey year (including the RBC cup and Fred Page cup): Additional rules apply to you. By January you will have to be registered full time in a university or College program. You better get organized early to apply so that you can maintain your eligibility. There are lots of other requirements around this and your team academic advisor can fill you in on these. The CCHL has made available a great guide for you that provides more information for you
Great opportunities await our CCHL players but only if they are prepared. The above lays out what you can do educationally to keep the opportunities open. Three broad pieces of advice:
- Know the rules – It’s about keeping yourself eligible whether for USports or NCAA. It is your responsibility to keep yourself eligible and we as a league have provided a lot of information on our website under the academic tab to help you do that.
- Keep track of deadlines – The earlier you enroll for University or College courses, the better your chances of getting the kind of course schedule that will work with your hockey schedule. You must keep track of these deadlines, check the school websites and for our grade 12 players get registered in time at the Ontario Universities’ Applications Centre. Keeping track of deadlines is especially important if you turn 21 this hockey year.
- Keep your teams’ academic advisor informed, work with them – Let the team advisor know your educational goals, let them know your marks each month. The advisor is an important part of your team.
If you have any questions, about the educational side of CCHL do not hesitate to reach out to your team academic advisor and to me.
Have a great hockey season.
Jonathan Calof
Academic Director CCHL
Professor, Telfer School of Management, University of Ottawa
calof@telfer.uottawa.ca
Regards
Jonathan Calof
CCHL Director of Education
Full Professor, Telfer School of Management
