So.Mn.Fan
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It's early-signing day today. Interesting stuff from the Strib on the direction of some Gopher programs. Today is a bit like Christmas for college coaches. It’s the start of the early signing period. Kids who have made verbal commitments can make it official. I wrote a very short story on recruits in three sports for Wednesday’s Sports section. Wrestling is bringing in five athletes, all rated in the top five in their weight nationally. A super class. Women’s hockey also has a solid class, with six recruits including two special ones from Grand Forks, N.D., the Lamoreaux twins, Monique and Jocelyn. Both are forwards who can score. They are playing for Shattuck-St. Mary’s in Faribault. Men’s hockey? That’s a little trickier to figure out. Coach Don Lucia seems to have decided to go young. Three players, who should be high school juniors, have accelerated their education so they can graduate next spring in three years, skip the USHL and play for the Gophers. One is Jordan Schroeder of the U.S. national under-18 team in Ann Arbor, Mich. He is a creative playmaker who has heated up in scoring lately. He had a hat trick and two assists in a recent game against Finland. He finished his junior year of high school this past summer, taking classes on the Internet from BYU. Defenseman Sam Lofquist, Schroeder’s teammate, completed his junior classes this fall. In Schroeder’s case, he would have been too old to play for the national under-18 team next season and did not want to go back to a high school team (he played at St. Thomas Academy as an eighth-grader and freshman). His other option was the USHL or, if he could graduate high school early, the U of M if they wanted him early. Apparently the Gophers do. Lucia and the other coaches can’t talk about Schroeder until he signs, but he said the U was leaving the decision up to him. My guess is that Lofquist is in a similar position. A third player, Roseau defenseman Aaron Ness, is also accelerating his education, trying to graduate high school in three years. Rams coach Scott Oliver said he is taking junior and senior classes at the same time. Sounds difficult. He might not have senior status yet like Schroeder and Lofquist do, so he might not be able to sign early. Obviously, these three players are talented but are they rushing too quick into college hockey? Schroeder and Lofquist are playing against college teams now, and Ness was on the U.S. under-18 team with them for games against Colorado College and Air Force last month. All three have more than an inkling of what they are getting into. They have to be confident in themselves. And the U has to have confidence in them, too. Beyond these three, the U has a commitment from one other U.S. national under-18 player, 6-4 Grant Scott, a kid from Pennsylvania, who is a normal senior. Has the U ever had a player from that state? Five present USHL players also have committed. Big question here is, which of them does the U want for next season? Nobody on Lucia’s staff, of course, can say. This group includes forwards Nico Sacchetti of Virginia and Jake Hansen of White Bear Lake — who would be high school seniors if they had stayed home — and high school grads Taylor Matson of Holy Angels and Mike Dorr of Roseville. Matson was injured part of last season, Dorr was the Metro Player of the Year. Lucia said the Gophers would sign between six and eight players. He has six seniors on the present team, including practice goalie Brent Solei. But he has to over-recruit because he could lose several players such as junior Blake Wheeler and sophomore Kyle Okposo — both first round NHL draft picks — to the pros in the offseason. Do you think going younger is a good idea? These young players might stay around another season, but … is it too big a jump for them? Frankly, I wonder if the accelerating players are learning as much as they should be in the classroom. Are they over-cramming?
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