Episode 361 Parents: So You Want Your Goalie to Go to Harvard — with Brian Robinson

I hadn't heard a quite phrase that way, pick a post, but it totally makes sense. I look forward to getting more of that, with Eric Comrie, now the San Jose Sharks, as we slide over to Hutch, who will join us now, but he's he's on assignment, but, gave us this, edition of the parent segment brought to you by Stop It Goaltending U the app, which is front and center in his life right now.

Well, is. I mean, what a perfect segue because Hutch is actually in Boston at Stop It Goaltending's prospect camp and tapping into in person all the experience of one of the biggest goalie schools in the world. If you can't make it to Boston, but you still wanna tap into that experience, into the twenty five years of NHL goalie coaching experience from Brian Daccord, you can do so with a subscription to Stop It Goaltending U the app. All the knowledge from Brian who has been an NHL goalie coach scout and director as we said with the Red Wings currently, as well as all the insights and expertise from his staff at Stop It, which includes a long list of minor pro and veteran NCAA coaches, as well as others that work in other departments around the National Hockey League, all delivered in easy to digest chunks, including five short daily primers, weekly style analysis and breakdown videos, and drills that you can take onto the ice with your team and coach this summer. Plus, you get a subscription to InGoal Magazine included.

So check it out now at the App Store or Google Play and get the best of both worlds with a subscription to Stop It Goaltending U the app and a subscription to InGoal Magazine. The best of both worlds. It's kinda like Hutch being at Stop It Goaltending this week.

Over to Hutch.

Alright. Thanks, guys. I'm with Brian Robinson, goaltending coach for Harvard University and managing director at Stop It Goaltending. Very privileged to be at Stop It Goaltending's summer prospects camp, and I cornered Brian pretty much literally to have him talk to parents directly. And five tips for parents, something like that.

We'll see where the conversation goes, Brian.

Awesome, Dave. Thanks for having me. It's been great great talking to you this week. Great getting to finally meet you in person after seeing you only digitally and I guess audibly through the the podcast. So this has been a lot of fun.

You know, big thing with parents, you know, obviously, when they when they see me, they see the Harvard, the Ivy League, obviously. The education is great as parents. You know, I'm a I'm a new parent as of as of the last three years here, and, you know, we always want what's best for our kids. And education wise, it usually doesn't get much better than Harvard. So I I at these events when there's lots of kids, lots of parents here, I usually do get, you know, a lot of parents coming up like, oh, you know, asking not cliche questions, but the common ones.

You know? Like, what do you look for? What do the kids need for test scores? This, that, the other thing. So the big thing for me, at least, as far as as it relates to Harvard, like, you know, I'm I'm lucky or I've been lucky over the years.

You know, obviously, we just had a regime change going into this season, but before under Ted Donato and the the good the great assistants actually he's had over there, they do most of the legwork for me in a sense that, you know, I don't even look at a kid unless we already know they have the grades to get in. Now with this major junior stuff, you know, as I was mentioning to you before we started recording, we need test scores. So, like, we're one of the few institutions, you know, remaining out there that, you know, we require either an SAT or an SAT, and we need usually to get a certain test score. And obviously, that combined with the the GPA or the weighted GPA depending on where they got their high school education, that kinda dictates whether or not we're gonna be able to need a kid kid to get in. Now take the education, take all the strict academic guidelines away from it, we want good players.

We're we're doing the same as you know, all these other big schools are trying to do is we're trying to win games, we're trying to win Bean Pots and league championships and Frozen Fours and National Titles. So you know, it's a it's a special type of kid we need, you know. We need we need kids that can can think on their own, they don't need their hands held, they need to be able to manage the life of being a Harvard student and the life of being a full time division one athlete. You know, both require, you know, a lot of time, a lot of effort, a lot of energy, so we need kids that can kinda kinda manage those things, if you will. So, you know, before before we ever even have kids on campus, you know, I usually do phone call first, Zoom call next, and try to pick their brains.

You know, I wanna know how they are personally. I wanna know the basically, I wanna know those kids inside out, know, what are their family values? What do they like to do for hobbies, you know, I then need to figure out who their goalie coaches are, who their head coaches are, need to figure out what type of kid they are, what type of teammate, all that type of stuff. So, yeah, it's it's not much different than other schools other than the fact, you know, we can't throw a scholarship at these kids. Know, if if for anyone that's not aware, Harvard is all need based.

It's only academic money. We don't have athletic scholarships over there. You know, the big thing we sell is, you know, we have that Harvard Ivy League education. Not only the education, but, you know, the other the other type of students that are coming through there and the, you know, the the people you get to rub elbows with, you know, your roommate might end up being the the next maker of Facebook. You never know.

So that's that's kinda one of the the big selling points and big benefits for us, you know, and we're also, you know, we're in a city with a lot of other really good hockey schools. All the other bean pot teams are really, really strong programs these days. You know? We it's been shown over the last ten plus years now. It's almost any man's game now with the bean pot.

You know? When Northeastern's won a few as of late, we got we finally got ours a couple years back. And then, obviously, we all are aware of the BCs and the BUs of the world. So, you know, we're we're trying to battle with them every single year. That bean pot for anyone not familiar, not from the New England area, like, that's that's a big deal for us.

That's kind of at that point in the season, that's like our Stanley Cup. And then once we get past that, we're we're trying to, you know, finish down the stretch in the playoffs and, you know, and trying to make the NCAA tournament, which which is never an easy task. You know? And now with this this major junior stuff, hockey overall is getting better. We have a bigger pool of good kids to pick from.

And and again, since we've started, been able to recruit the kids for major junior, the big thing that I've found out with the kids I'm trying to recruit and get on campus is that they're not even aware that they need to take test scores. So that would be my one thing, you know, if you're a you're a younger student athlete, you know, playing in Canada and growing up up there, and you know, you do wanna try to get into a place like Harvard is just know that you will eventually have to take one of those test scores. It's just a requirement of the of the institution.

One question on that for the unfamiliar Canadians. When do they need to start preparing for that? Is this a grade 10 thing, grade 11 thing? Can they just take them in the summer of grade 12? Do you know enough from academic people who probably get on you about your recruits to to advise people a bit?

Yeah. So as far as the timeline goes, it it's pretty much just when when you're ready to like say we're trying to recruit you to Harvard and we need you to submit your application, you need your test scores by then. There is no I mean, you need to wait until a certain point in high school before you can actually take the test, and you can take them multiple times as well. With the SATs, can do what's called a super score. So there's there's two sections of the test, if you, you know, you take it once and you do really well on one part and poorly on the other, you can take it again.

And if you do better on that part you did poorly on the first time, you can combine your two different scores for a higher potential score, which which is good. I think, you know, when you think about, god. I need to do I need to get this score on this test or I'm not gonna be able to go to school I wanna go to, it can be it can be a daunting task for kids. Right? It could kind of freak you out and be you get anxiety and real anxious thinking about it. And it's I think that kinda helps knowing, alright. If I don't do that great the first time, I can can get a second crack at it.

But, yeah, so with the admissions process, if it's, you know, it's coming down to the deadlines and you didn't get your test done by a certain time, it's we're gonna have to wait till the next admission period, which is another one of the hurdles that we need to deal with.

You mentioned having to get the test scores in with your application. When are those applications due? And I'll just add another one to it. There's a perception out there that your academic average is basically your save percentage and you're good and you'll get in, but it's probably not true in an Ivy League school, is it?

That is absolutely correct. It is not true. They have what they call, you know, weighted GPAs, and it's based off of the academic institutions that the kids went to when they were in high school. But yeah. So the deadlines, we have what's called restrictive early action, which is a November 1 deadline.

And then we have a regular decision, which is January 1 of that the year leading up to the following school year.

Okay. That's perfect. Any as we as we leave your amazing camp, it's been an incredible week here. And I should mention, Brian is also in charge of the SIGU app, which sponsors all of our parent segments. Thank you so much, Brian.

We work, super close together on that to make it a great app for everybody. As we wrap up the camp here, any thoughts for parents between, now and the beginning of season, how they can support their kids?

So big thing for me, you know, so we have a lot of goalies here this week, a lot of different ages, a lot of talent. Big thing for me is show up on time. And I feel like that's something that that the parents can help instill into their goaltenders, into into their kids, their children. Right? So yesterday alone, my 9AM puck handling skating session, we had four kids on the ice late.

Not ideal. Right? So and, again, you only you only get one first impression, and those four kids was my first time being on the ice with them, so not not ideal. So to me, it's try to instill into your kids, into your student athletes, control the controllables. To me, unless you blew a tire or got to a car accident on the way to the rink, showing up on time should be one of those controllables, you know, bearing any extenuating circumstances.

As far as your kids, you know, especially for bringing to a camp like GCG, and, you know, there's there's plenty of good goalie coaches and camps all over the country, North America, the world. Right? The kids need to be a sponge. They need to be respectful. You know?

And if they can show up on time and control their effort and attitude and and in any aspect of life, whether it's on the ice, off the ice, in the classroom, at work, whatever, I think I think that type of stuff can can go a long way.

Perfect. Thank you so much. Speaking of being on time, you and I are on the ice together in twenty minutes. Thanks for joining us on the parent segment this week, Brian.