Noticing that University of Minnesota has fallen to second on the list of teams seeking the youngest recruits, head coach Bob Motzko is preparing to pioneer new territory: prenatal commits via ultrasound.
With several teams already seeking to recruit middle school age kids in order to get the jump on other programs, Motzko believes that the simplest answer is to go as early as possible. The Golden Gophers have hired an assistant coach based out of Warroad, Minn.—a small town near the Canadian border famous for turning out NHL players through their high school hockey program—to stand by at LifeCare Medical Center in nearby Roseau and attempt to get commitments from yet-to-be-born players.
The new coach attends ultrasound sessions in an attempt to find any sort of movement from the fetus that could be interpreted as assent to someday wearing the maroon and gold. This could be anything from a thumbs up to even a gentle kick.
The top 10 teams by youngest average age at recruitment over the last four years are as follows:
- Boston College (15.7)
- Minnesota (16.1)
- Boston University (16.1)
- Wisconsin (16.3)
- Notre Dame (16.4)
- Michigan (16.5)
- Minnesota-Duluth (16.7)
- Northeastern (16.7)
- Providence (16.7)
- Penn State (16.7)
Cover image by Wikipedia user Shipguy9, used under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 license.
Alex Slepak is the former Editor-in-Chief of Tech Hockey Guide. Alex was a Student Conductor of the Huskies Pep Band and graduated from MTU in 2014 with a B.S. in Scientific and Technical Communication. After graduating, he moved to the Twin Cities where he now writes software manuals for a living.
