I keep seeing posts suggesting that we should all forget this junior crap and have junior go straight to college after graduation. Well, I felt exactly the same way a year ago. In fact, we turned down a couple tenders and committed to a college because I figured the chances of playing D1 hockey (having no offers so far) was extremely low. I was also worried that if he went off to play junior this year, he might want to play another year and I really wasn\\\\\\\'t down with that.

Well, my wife and some friends convinced me to give him one \\\\\\\"gap year\\\\\\\" where he could get noticed or just have a year having fun playing junior hockey. Otherwise, he might spend his life wondering what might have been. Moreover, he is a very late bloomer, so I figured that there might be some interest even though there wasn\\\\\\\'t much before.

So, off he went to play tier 2 junior for a coach who liked him and his style of play. He gets a lot of ice time and has been contacted by numerous D1 and D3 programs - not the elite D1 programs like Michigan or Minnesota, but good colleges. In fact, it\\\\\\\'s looking like hockey may help him get into some elite academic schools that he might not have gotten into otherwise.

As such, the gamble seems to have paid off for us. The question now is whether we let him play another year of junior. The answer is probably \\\\\\\"yes\\\\\\\", provided some of our target colleges remain interested but want him to mature another year.

I keep seeing posts suggesting that we should all forget this junior crap and have junior go straight to college after graduation. Well, I felt exactly the same way a year ago. In fact, we turned down a couple tenders and committed to a college because I figured the chances of playing D1 hockey (having no offers so far) was extremely low. I was also worried that if he went off to play junior this year, he might want to play another year and I really wasn\\\\\\\'t down with that.

Well, my wife and some friends convinced me to give him one \\\\\\\"gap year\\\\\\\" where he could get noticed or just have a year having fun playing junior hockey. Otherwise, he might spend his life wondering what might have been. Moreover, he is a very late bloomer, so I figured that there might be some interest even though there wasn\\\\\\\'t much before.

So, off he went to play tier 2 junior for a coach who liked him and his style of play. He gets a lot of ice time and has been contacted by numerous D1 and D3 programs - not the elite D1 programs like Michigan or Minnesota, but good colleges. In fact, it\\\\\\\'s looking like hockey may help him get into some elite academic schools that he might not have gotten into otherwise.

As such, the gamble seems to have paid off for us. The question now is whether we let him play another year of junior. The answer is probably \\\\\\\"yes\\\\\\\", provided some of our target colleges remain interested but want him to mature another year.