Last summer, my daughter Emily and I were sitting in the office of a college hockey coach, talking about my goalie possibly becoming a member of his squad in 2015.

After listening to me expounding upon the statistical success of my daughter's junior season, the coach raised his right hand to halt my short monologue.

'I don't recruit based on stats,' he stated simply. 'I want to watch the player on the ice and see their skills for myself and judge their character by what I see on and off the ice.'

That made a lot of sense.

So why is it that this year more than ever, parents are so consumed with their kid's hockey stats?

They are always looking for one more goal or assist on their player's resume, as if the difference between 25 and 26 career assists would allow the kid to play at UW-Madison instead of playing at a D3 school.

Don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with D3 schools and that is exactly the point.

There is nothing wrong with playing Division 3 hockey.

It takes a special person to play hockey at an elite Division 1 school and there are probably only a handful of players in Wisconsin that this would apply to.

But yet parents seem to think that their child will magically appear on the radar of a premier school because of their season or career hockey stats.

It's much more than that, and the stats are low on the priority list.

Don't get me wrong--stats can get a player noticed, but that is just the beginning of a well-thought out process.

Coaches want to talk to the kid, see him play, find out what kind of person he or she is.

That is how the player earns that scholarship.

Good coaches can tell how good a player is by watching for three minutes in warm-ups. Skating, shooting, puck-handling, and leadership abilities all shine brightly through very quickly.

Stats on the other hand, can vary from game to game.

A coach won't reject a player just because he was blanked on the score sheet, knowing instead that anybody can have a bad day. The skills will remain constant, as will character, and those are the two items that coaches rank high on their checklists of prospective players.

So here's my advice: let the players play, let the coaches coach, and parents and fans, your only job is to watch and enjoy the play of your child on the ice.

My daughter is a senior and it seems like just yesterday she was at her first varsity practice as a ninth grader.

Time flies and before you know it, you will be out on the ice, crying with your child after his or her final high school game.

Don't let statistics interfere with what is supposed to be an enjoyable athletic experience.