RinkWise podcast: Kent coach Dale Reinhardt on player development and recruiting

Dale Reinhardt (top, middle) led Kent to its third Large School title in five seasons this year. (Dave Arnold/NEHJ)

Dale Reinhardt has seen it all.

The boys head coach at Kent has guided the Lions to three of the last five Large School titles. Before taking the job at Kent in 2013, Reinhardt was an assistant at Canterbury from 2010 to 2013.

During his playing days, Reinhardt was a standout at Holy Cross after playing at Delbarton. He played a season in the ECHL between the Bakersfield Condors and Ontario Reign before beginning his coaching career as a volunteer assistant at Holy Cross under former head coach Paul Pearl, now the athletic director at Dexter Southfield.

Reinhardt joined New England Hockey Journal editor Evan Marinofsky and writer Patrick Donnelly in the latest RinkWise episode.

They discussed the recruitment process for student-athletes, the importance of choosing the right path for youth hockey players and much more.

RinkWise podcast: Kent’s Dale Reinhardt

What should players be doing in the spring?

Reinhardt: “I think it’s really hard the way that the culture has gone. I’d love for all of our kids to just be playing another sport, particularly in the spring. I recognize in the prep school hockey world, our seasons are shorter than most kids are used to when they come in to us, and they’re playing split-season. So, it’s hard to play another sport in the fall. But I’m a firm believer when we can get our kids involved in playing another sport in the spring, it’s awesome for a variety of reasons. I think it’s a good break for them, physically and mentally. … So, I really love for them to get away, continue to compete and kind of have that element of their athletic profile still engaged, get coached by somebody else, meet other kids and just kind of get engaged in our community in a different way.”

Why are players rushing to juniors before college?

Reinhardt: “I think part of it is they see or they’ve been told, ‘This is what I have to do to get to that next step.’ But I also think that it’s that same kind of same thing goes back to that social media. If this is what everybody’s doing, and that kind of peer pressure of that race to nowhere mentality. I’ve just always been of the mindset like conquer where you’re at before you move to the next step. That’s the part that I’m hoping we’ll see a little bit more of. We may see less guys who are reclassifying when they come in here, but if we can see guys kind of finish out through their senior year and graduate, like I’m yet to see a guy be harmed in that process with
us. They kind of come through the process, they graduate, they go off and maybe they have to play a year or two of junior before they get to their Division 1 school. Or, some of our guys are still able to step right in and play at the Division 3 level right away and have success. So that’s, kind of another option that works for them. But just having a more holistic approach to the whole process, I think is
important.”