I'm up in Wisconsin now with my family, and it has been great. I love it up here at the lake. The boat rides, water ski shows, family outings, and life in the Northwoods in general never gets old. I really do get the best of both worlds: Vail, Colorado and Minocqua, Wisconsin. I'd say I'm pretty lucky. So you'd probably ask why I left this lakeside paradise to go to stiflingly hot Minneapolis for a day...I went on a campus visit at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, about 45 minutes from the Twin Cities. I've been looking at a lot of colleges, trying to open up some more options for myself, and what I like about St. Olaf is that it's an Ivy League caliber Division III hockey school in the midwest. It's a short drive from the Twin Cities, it's in a small, lively college town, and the campus is beautiful. It has great academic programs, particularly in math and the sciences, and it's easily accessible for my family and friends to watch me play.
My mom, sister, and I sat through a few presentations and question/answer sessions with faculty and students and then we went on the campus tour with a student guide. It was great to see the campus and hear people talk about the school because the previous time I visited the school, everyone was on Easter Break, and there was no one around and no campus tours taking place. I liked it a lot, and I could easily see myself going to school there.
After the campus tour was over, I met with the hockey coach and sat down to have lunch with him, my sister, my mom, and the admissions advisor in charge of students applying from Colorado. It was a great talk, where I learned a lot about the school and the hockey program that I didn't learn on the tour. Plus, the food in the school's cafeteria was great, which, as you know, is a big plus for me because that is where I will be spending a lot of my time. There and the ice rink. And of course the library too...I could tell that the coach was being very honest with me; he wasn't trying to sugarcoat anything, but he told me what kind of player they're looking for and the kind of commitment it takes to be a student-athlete at St. Olaf. He told us that 90% of the players they recruit come out of juniors; that's just the nature of college hockey today. The players they get out of juniors are more mature hockey players and people and more physically ready to compete at the college hockey level. He also said that what he finds is kids coming out of juniors are usually really driven to do well in school once they get there because they've been out of school for so long. I think I'm right in that boat. I find myself missing school sometimes. They seemed to really like me, though. He said he thinks I would fit in very well at St. Olaf--academically and athletically--and he believes they can turn me into a shut down defenseman with my size and my athletic ability. It really was a great talk, and I can't remember everything that was said during the lunch, but I got an overall feeling that I would really like it at St. Olaf. Here's a fun fact: after the season, I completed my St. Olaf application, making me the first applicant for the incoming freshman class of 2012. They were impressed by my promptness, self awareness of my on and off-ice talents, and my willingness to take a visit, all things that will help me as I move forward in this process.
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