russwiz

Thanks for the quick response! I appreciate the advice about higher education and all that and I just wanted to assure you my parents would definitely prefer I go to college for education primarily and not sports unless it’s a good college for both haha. I definitely couldn’t see myself going pro either considering I haven’t even started yet, I just have a burning desire to play hockey and get up to par with my hockey playing friends. Thanks again for giving me this bit of knowledge. I truly do appreciate every ounce of help. Thanks

So I just typed out this big long paragraph explaining everything but that got deleted so I’m just going to quickly give you the run down before I start asking questions. For starters, I’m 15. I’m 6 feet 1 inch tall and I’ve played football and soccer and basketball all my life like most American kids. My very first sport/activity, however, was skating. I have skated since I was 2 years old and stopped skating almost every day when I was about 9 or 10. I still skate every so often, and I really love it. Sadly, when all my friends went on to play hockey around age 5, I was not allowed. A couple of my best friends today are the ones I skated with those early years, and all of them are high level hockey players now. One of my friends plays in the OHL at 16 years old. Seeing as most of my best friends whole lives are consumed by hockey, you’d think I would have thought about this by now, but I haven’t, so here I am. Before I ask my questions, I’ll give you a general idea of my skill and experience with hockey. At the moment, I skate from time to time with my friends and am about at their skill level skating wise, surprisingly. My only weakness skating wise would be skating backwards, but I can still do it decently well. The major problem, though, is my stick and puck skills. I’ve barely practiced handling the puck and am pretty basic at it. With daily practice in the basement, I think I can pick it up pretty quickly. So my questions to you are, based on what you’ve heard about my skill, do you think I would be able to play high school hockey in the next year or 2? If so, where do I start so late? Are there beginner/intermediate leagues for kids my age? I live right near a hockey rink, so how much time should I spend at the rink daily or weekly working, and what should I work on? Is it extremely uncommon for 15 year olds to start at this age, and if not, do they have much success? This is really important to me because, looking back at it, not being able to beg my parents enough to allow me to play is something I regret almost the most out of anything in my whole life. If you can answer any of these questions, please do. Anything helps and I’d appreciate any amount of help. Thanks.