How many tournaments and showcases should players do this summer?

A Cushing forward, Landan Resendes (Hudson, Mass.) was a 2022 Beantown Summer Classic standout. (Dave Arnold/NEHJ)

It’s the question everybody asks and there’s no right answer: How many tournaments and showcases should players do during the summer?

There are lots of great options around the region for players to get looked at by prep school, junior and college coaches.

And there’s another question: How should players best prepare for the big showcases? First impressions matter and it’s up to the players to put themselves in the best position to rise to the occasion.

But that’s a lot of pressure.

On the latest RinkWise podcast, Stephanie Wood discusses the tournament and showcase scene with Evan Marinofsky. She gives her best advice on how to prepare for tournaments, as well as the best way to contact coaches you want to play for.

On connecting with coaches you want to play for:

Stephanie Wood: “[College coaches] could easily get hundreds of emails leading up to those events. Hundreds. As you can imagine how hard it is for them to navigate through that. On your end as a player, being as proactive as possible. …Start with a list of schools. If there are hundreds of emails that these coaches are getting, you need to really try to focus on schools that are on your list. You don’t have time to waste and neither do these college coaches. …Reach out to them and lay out the events — the tournaments and showcases you’re going to be doing this summer. Lay out which team you’re going to be on, provide the schedule if you can. That makes it really easy. The more work you can do for that coach, the better.”

On being mentally and physically ready for showcases:

Stephanie Wood: “I’m a big believer that confidence and going into something feeling well prepared is going to come from being actually prepared for that moment. Another strong piece of advice is when you’re going to your showcase, let’s say we have a showcase that’s scheduled towards the end of June, right now we’re in the beginning of May and they’re taking a break like we advised, now be a good time to start back up with a little bit of hockey, a little bit of skating, certainly training. Trying to get in shape.”

The RinkWise podcast can be streamed here and on major platforms, such as Apple Podcasts and Spotify.