Sports Update – NCAA and U Sports Commits

TYLER hit the ground running in his freshman year as a member of the men’s baseball team at Wright State University in Ohio. He took home Freshman of the Year honours and was selected to the Horizon League’s First Team and All-Freshman Team. Now in his third year, he is drawing a fair amount of MLB Draft interest as one of college baseball’s top infielders. He was recently named to Baseball America’s list of Top 300 Draft Prospects, along with four other Canadians.

Q&A

How have COVID-19 protocols affected the way you prepare, practice, and play this season?

As an NCAA athlete, we are constantly being tested and have to do a really good job of self-isolating and limiting exposure as much as we can. One positive test could risk a good chunk of our season. In terms of the baseball side of things, not much has changed. We practice how we usually would, but in smaller groups and have to wear masks. It’s definitely challenging, but I tend to look on the positive side as many schools aren’t playing at all. Whatever we can do to make sure we stay on the field, people are more than happy to abide by those rules.

Two prospect organizations had you ranked preseason all-conference and conference Player of the Year. How do you handle that kind of recognition?

The recognition is very cool and humbling for me, especially because I didn’t get a lot of attention from scouts in high school. It drives me to become that much better and motivates me to continue to raise the bar and chase my full potential.

Thoughts on the upcoming MLB Draft and what it would mean for you to get picked?

Honestly, I am not really focused on the Draft, and instead just trying to win as many games as I can with my team right now. However, it would be a dream come true for me and would be a special moment for not only myself but also all the people who helped me get to the point I’m at today.

How did your experience at SAC prepare you to be an NCAA D1 student-athlete?

SAC taught me a lot of things. The main thing they prepared me with was time-management skills and prioritizing things that would help me succeed. Being a D1 athlete, it is very tough to manage time, and balancing athletics and academics at a high level can be a big challenge. Coming into my freshman year at Wright State, I felt like I was way ahead of everyone else in managing my time and prioritizing things that would make me successful because of SAC. X

Off to the next level

Here are SAC’s most recent NCAA and U Sports commits: >

Tyler Hotson ’22: Hockey

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI)

AJ Nichols ’21: Volleyball

University of Waterloo

Aydar Suniev ’22: Hockey

Harvard University

DRAKE has put together an impressive NCAA career as he competes in his final season on the men’s lacrosse team at Syracuse University in New York. The All-American goaltender entered this year as team captain and the program’s first three-year starter in a decade. He led the American Athletic Conference (ACC) in save percentage the last two years, and in December 2020, was named the preseason goalie of the year. Off the field, he’s a four-time ACC Honor Roll student and is a candidate this year for the Senior CLASS award, given to the most outstanding senior in NCAA Division 1 sports.

Q&A

How have COVID-19 protocols affected the way you prepare, practice, and play this season?

COVID-19 protocols have significantly changed a lot of our team’s daily routines that used to seem so simple. Practice is the only normal time of the day, where we can have the entire team on the field with no restrictions. The rest of the day, we are restricted to pods of about ten guys. We’re only allowed in the locker room for ten minutes at a time, whereas we used to all hang out in there during the day, and we’re only allowed to hang out with other guys in our ten-man pods outside the facility. Social life has been a big adjustment; finding ways to have fun on our own when we can’t necessarily get the entire team together is difficult. Practices and game days are fairly standard. We’re slowly getting a limited number of fans into our games, but these fans are students only right now, no parents or family. Because of this, I would say the biggest adjustment has been not being able to have my family at the games this year. I miss them, but I’m hoping the rules change soon, and they can come down and catch a game.

What does it mean to you to be a candidate for the 2021 Senior CLASS award?

It means a lot to me to be considered for an award that focuses as much on character and academics as it does athletic achievements. My goal has always been to represent my family and those who have supported me in the right way both on and off the field. Being a candidate for this award hopefully shows that I’m doing my best to achieve that goal. SAC pushed me to develop as a man, a student, and an athlete, so it would be wrong for me not to give a ton of credit for this nomination to my time at St. Andrew’s.

What has been a personal highlight for you on the field this year?

In our first game of the season, we lost by five goals to Army. We were very disappointed in ourselves as this was supposed to be a relatively easy win. That disappointment was compounded by the fact that many people in the lacrosse media immediately counted us out as a legitimate championship contender. We came back the next week and beat the University of Virginia, a team ranked in the Top 5 in the nation at the time. It was an emotional win for us since we proved to ourselves that we were a great team and silenced many of the critics who wrote us off.

How did your experience at SAC prepare you to be an NCAA D1 student-athlete?

SAC prepared me as an athlete and person, but more important than anything else, my time at SAC gave me a huge advantage in the classroom. Being a D1 student-athlete is all about time management. Because the athletic schedule takes up so much of your time, using the free time you do have effectively is important. I had experience with this at SAC; between the rigorous academics, the high-level athletics, Cadets, and other activities, I was able to develop my time-management skills to get an adequate amount of studying and schoolwork in. Because of this, when I arrived at Syracuse, I didn’t have the same adjustment period as many of my peers on the team, and I was able to transition into my new schedule seamlessly. X

Hockey world takes notice of new prep school league

By Sean Maillet

After more than a year in the making, it was revealed on March 15 that six leading men’s preparatory hockey-playing institutions will make up the Prep Hockey Conference (PHC), set to begin play in the 2021-2022 season.

If you have ever been to watch a game at the MacPherson Tournament, then you know the electric atmosphere that surrounds the rink when the top prep hockey programs in North America get together. With the creation of the PHC, that energy won’t be saved for just one weekend at the end of January.

The institutions that will make up the league are Culver Academies (Culver, Indiana), Mount Saint Charles Academy (Woonsocket, Rhode Island), Northwood School (Lake Placid, New York), Shattuck-St. Mary’s School (Faribault, Minnesota), South Kent School (Kent, Connecticut), and St. Andrew’s College (Aurora, Ontario).

The group plans to establish itself as the premiere prep hockey league in North America by setting the highest standards for competitiveness and maintaining a level of institutional investment that demonstrates a significant commitment to its hockey programs and facilities.

“The formation of the PHC has been something we’ve envisioned being a part of and are thrilled to be a founding member with these other outstanding programs. We can’t wait for that first game next fall and the opportunity to compete and showcase our players in the best prep hockey league in North America,” says First Hockey Head Coach, David Manning.

Since 1899, hockey has been woven into the fabric of St. Andrew’s culture and, for many young men, it has been an essential piece of their educational journey. With teams starting at U12, St. Andrew’s offers a hockey program at every level.

The First Hockey team has elevated players to university teams since its inception, but in the last 13 years under David’s guidance, 46 players have moved on to NCAA programs and another 11 have been drafted to the NHL.

The hockey community’s early reaction shows a strong feeling of enthusiasm for the potential this new league has to offer. Ryan Kennedy, senior writer and prospect expert for The Hockey News, wrote in his launch story, “Simply put, this is going to be very exciting for prospect-watchers.” Sportsnet host, Jeff Marek, sees it as a long time coming. In response to the PHC’s promo video, he tweeted, “Now *this* is interesting. Overdue? Probably. Good on these schools for getting this together.”

Establishing relationships within and beyond the hockey world can take the league to the next level. The goal is to create a high degree of visibility and positive media exposure for the PHC, its programs, and its players.

The league even made it into the “31 Thoughts” column by Sportsnet reporter and NHL insider, Elliotte Friedman. He mentioned that the six teams will be split up into East and West divisions and provided some information on how the on-ice action will be structured early on. In November, all teams plan to participate in a “full league weekend” in Rhode Island, with playoffs slated for February 2022.

Until then, more information regarding the PHC can be found on its website at thephchockey.com, and for up-to-the-minute details, follow along on its social media account @thephchockey. X