Best of luck to your son. Hockey is very important at Choate (several Olympians…) and, of course, the academics are tops. Taft would be the next best option. He seems like a great candidate and you will have options on M10. Good luck.
Thank you but if hockey was a top priority we would have been applying to Shattuck and South Kent. I thought that I made it clear that we were attempting to get the whole package - strong hockey and strong academics. I apologize if I did not make that clear.
Thank you mexusa for your response. Good points about re-visit although now these kids play on split seasons beginning in September 
Thank you very much for your support.
regarding sat tuck meant to direct response to intparent. Thank you.
Meant to direct split season comment to MA2012. Thank you
Thank you chemchimney for your valid points about BS hockey and best of luck to your daughter. I myself cannot wait for him to have his academic, athletic, and socialization under one umbrella. The travel and attempting to keep up with his school work has reached its limit this year. Also, while the BS hockey players are not playing 80 games as in a AAA season, they are now starting earlier play as most of the boys do a split season. I have read that article and it’s a great one. Thanks for sharing and good luck to your daughter.
sorry shattuck
Thank you Sculptor Dad for your response. He lives and breather hockey and aspires to play either Division one in college or at one of the NESCAT schools. Academics in our family is a priority. Thank you.
Thank you Mexusa for your support. Fingers crossed
Hi Choatiemom, thanks for your response. As a tier one hockey player you generally don’t play for your local high school. Currently he is playing U-16 (playing a year up) and that team is watered down because many of those players have gone on to play prep school hockey. It’s just the route that these kids go. The other option is driving over a bridge to get him to a decent U-16 team or billeting him and having him sleep in someone’s basement in the Midwest which is not an option for us. Thank you for your insight.
Excuse me center - he made the NY national camp and meant to say he is attending very good NY School. We are looking at New England Prep schools - mixed it up. He wants to go away to school that’s why we are not considering the Connecticut Junior Rangers. We had a radius in terms of distance form our home so did not look at Exeter, Andover, Hotchkiss, Deerfield, etc.
It sounds like you have discussed (as a family) and thought out the process and schools you chose. It can be hard to put all the background in a post (and not always something to share with random. strangers). You have gotten a variety of ideas/information. The general consensus on this board is to revisit 2-3 schools to make a final decision. Good luck with the rest of the process.
Good luck with your decision.
I wasn’t suggesting he play for his high school. I was suggesting that if his HS is top notch academically, then he would have the best of both worlds staying at his local school for the academics and playing on a club team for the skill development and competition level. If that isn’t working for you because the local club team is underpowered, then pursuing other options makes sense, but your son will not have the same level of competition and time on the ice at Choate that he would get at the club level, but I don’t doubt that Choate is interested in getting an elite player on the team. How does your son feel about the trade-off?
Thank you - he really wants to attend Prep. I guess we will wait and see!
Everything that a boarding school offers is not free in terms of time. One must give up something to take them. There are only 24 hours per day, and about 12 hours except life maintenance. That’s how we figured.
The main difference will be that Tier 1 programs train pretty much year-round and prep schools will offer hockey for one term. If one single term per year is enough to accomplish your hockey goals, then perhaps prep school is worth consideration. There are some kids who play for prep school AND a local Tier 1 team, but the logistics are difficult for boarders, and the time commitment rarely matches up with most prep school schedules, so this is not a common thing.
Most kids I know who played Tier 1 stayed with their program (assuming a strong placement history) and were recruited directly from the program. There is a subset that does an additional PG year at a prep school to increase the rigor of academics as well as having another year to grow.
Seems like your family needs to decide which aspect (hockey or academics) is the more critical component. Does your current Tier 1 organization offer advice on this?
thank you for your response. The entire team is breaking up and going to prep school.
Hello Labufadora - my daughter is currently at the Gunnery and plays hockey. I do know most (if not all) of the varsity boys will do a split season, midget hockey program in the fall - some did Yale and some Mid-Fairfield (which I think is named something different for boys). They car pool and provide rides. The Gunnery is currently one of the “elite 8” right now in hockey standings for NE prep schools. Please PM me if you have any questions about academics or anything else about the school.