I have a question for understanding. When a boy plays hockey in high school. If he goes to university but doesn’t have hockey in the program, where does he have the opportunity to continue playing hockey?

12 comments

1. Depending on where he goes he may not have any such opportunity. Depends on if there’s any local rec leagues, or even rinks for that matter.

2. Most universities are in cities, and most cities have adult recreational leagues for popular sports. If the student goes to a school in a city with enough interest in hockey, there will likely be league to join.

3. Check for college club teams. Plenty of colleges have them but not NCAA teams because they can’t afford an ice arena.

4. Its possible that he would no longer have that opportunity. I imagine it would enter into his decision of what university to go to, if it mattered to him.

   Public indoor ice rinks aren’t all that uncommon, especially not in areas where hockey is popular, but there might not be any kind of competitive league to play in.

5. We had club hockey at my school. Their travel was brutal though, 1 hour away for practice and traveling sometimes across the state for game. If intramural or club isn’t an option, I guess local leagues organized by city or county rec. If those aren’t an option I guess they don’t have any options

6. Depends on the area. Maybe nothing but even colleges and universities that don’t have varsity hockey often have club hockey. So you can play just not as the “official” school team.

   There are definitely recreational leagues in the Midwest and New England. The competitiveness is highly variable depending on location but they exist.

7. Most kids won’t continue playing hockey at their university. They need to be very good to do that.

   That being said, in areas where hockey is popular there are often recreational leagues at varying skill levels. My university had three of them. A club team that played other universities, an intramural league for teams within the university, and a pick up league where teams were determined based on who shows up.

8. A recreational league. They’re pay to play organizations semi-subsidized by local government.

   Every municipality has a parks and recreation department, the quality of which depends heavily on the local community’s interest in paying taxes to support the facilities. The participants pay a fee to join a league and help cover costs of operating the facilities.

   Colleges and universities also have club/intramural sports that operate for fun/recreation.

   Varsity sports in American universities is extremely competitive, the highest levels of which are Olympic quality. Many of our Olympians are in college/university.

9. Everyone I know that plays hockey plays on travel teams that are separate from their grade or high school. I imagine at the college level it’s similar.

10. There may be local men’s leagues

11. There are two ways to the NHL.

    You can play in college or you can play in minor leagues (e.g., AHL, ECHL, etc.)

    If a boy plays hockey in high school and attends a college that has no hockey program, it’s safe to say his playing days are done. Walk-ons aren’t really a thing in the NHL in quite the same way as the NFL.

12. Oh I’m the perfect person to answer this because it happened to me-

    He doesn’t.

    Nearest rink from my college was 2-3 hours away so I had to hang em up. I picked it up again in middle age when my son starting playing mites, but there’s definitely some regret about missing out for so long.