Over at Hockey in Wisconsin, Dplaya is taking on the ambitious endeavor of interviewing former Wisconsin high school hockey players who've taken their games to the next level, whether that is the USHL/NAHL or the NCAA's. Hopefully this is a HUGE success for HIW and a lot of kids respond. As you know, several Wisconsin kids will be joining the Badgers in the coming seasons and hopefully they'll response to Dplaya. I personally would enjoy hearing the thoughts of 2010 recruits Jefferson Dahl, Sean Little and Chase Drake, as they prepare to enter school and join the Men's Hockey team.
The first interview posted is w/ former Eau Claire defenseman Jake McCabe who played last season w/ the US NTDP U17 team, and will return to the U18 this season, before joining the Badgers in 2011. A reminder Jake has accelerated his studies and will be a freshman at UW instead of a senior in high school in 2011.
I encourage you to read the whole interview, but here are a couple recruiting related questions and answers:
Dplaya: Can you fill us in on how your college recruitment progressed (when it happened, what teams were involved, which you liked, who you visited, why you chose UW)?
McCabe: The first team I had talked to was Wisconsin and that was right around when the high school season ended. After Selects in New York was when more teams started talking to me. Minnesota, Notre Dame and North Dakota were the main ones. I visited both Minnesota and Notre Dame in addition to Wisconsin. I liked all 3 schools a lot but Wisconsin definitely stood out. The campus was great, it has a very good reputation of producing defensemen, the coaches were very courteous to my whole family, and it's pretty close to home. After being 9 hours away it made me realize that I wanted to be able to play in front of my family and friends and be closer to them.
Dplaya: I had heard your intention was to take your time before making a college commitment. Any reason you decided to commit to Wisconsin when you did rather than go through the process of visiting more schools?
McCabe: I knew and talked to a couple guys who felt they committed to early and they then decomitted. I was happy with the few schools I visited and I knew it was going to be between one of those. The whole time my mind was pretty set on Wisconsin but after visiting a couple more schools it was clear that Wisconsin was where me and my family felt like was the best fit for me.
Jake is an exciting player who I'm really looking forward to see play. The 2011 class for the blue line is already looking top notch, as Jake joins Troy Hesketh whose already been drafted by the Oilers in the 3rd round of last summer's NHL draft. Hoping that Eaves schedules the NTDP again this season, give Jake a chance to play in front of the Kohl Center crowd.
Dplaya, keep up the great work over at HIW!!!
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