Another Newhook chooses to fly with the Eagles

In an indication of how recruitment to NCAA varsity athletic programs has become a long-term business, Abby Newhook of St. John’s has accepted an offer of a full scholarship from Boston College to play for the Eagles in that school’s Division One women’s hockey program.
However, there is a considerable time delay attached to the commitment. Newhook will be starting Grade 9 at McDonald Drive Junior High School next week. That means the earliest she’ll be attending Boston College will be 2021.
That should be just as her brother is entering his senior year at the school. Alex Newhook, 17, who played midget hockey in London, Ont., last season and will play in the British Columbia junior A league this fall and winter, has also committed to Boston College and could be at the school as early as the fall of 2018.
A product of the Avalon Celtics minor program, 14-year-old Abby Newhook played for the St. John’s Hitmen bantam boys AAA team last season, scoring 11 goals and registering the same number of assists in 24 games.
In recruiting Newhook,  Boston College — which has been to women’s Frozen Four NCAA tourney two of the last three years — won out over a number of other institutions with prominent hockey programs. Over this summer, she visited a number of schools and had received offered full scholarships from Maine, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Providence, Colgate and Boston College, all in Hockey East, as well as the Ivy’ League’s Princeton and Brown. In the end, she narrowed her choices down to Providence College, Princeton and BC.
While Newhook won’t be attending university in Boston for four years, there’s a good chance she’ll be at a New England school before then. She’s considering attending Tabor Academy, a Massachusetts prep school for Grades 10 to 12 to help her prepare for college hockey and academics.
As for this season, she’s once again trying out for the bantam Hitmen and was recently named captain of the provincial female U16 team that will compete in the Atlantic Challenge Cup in Moncton on the Thanksgiving Day weekend. Newhook has also trained at Xtreme Hockey where she now works as a student instructor for power skating and hockey.

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