"Recruiting has become a year-long process," Tomassoni says, "and I'm not sure that's a good thing."

Tomassoni's main turf is the New England area. Here more than anywhere else, Harvard is a dominating force in the recruiting wars.

The competition for recruits--even on its home turf--is intense. Harvard not only has to battle with Ivy League rivals like Yale and Princeton, but also with Boston schools like Northeastern, Boston University and Boston College and schools with huge programs--and big recruiting budgets--like Wisconsin and North Dakota.

"If the kid was trying to decide between Yale, Princeton and Harvard, I could be 95 percent sure he'd pick Harvard," Belmonte said. "But when he was being recruited for scholarship schools like Wisconsin and North Dakota, it was another story. Some parents look at [paying for Harvard] versus a full ride."

But the chance to go to Harvard is a once-in-a-lifetime shot. And most parents--and their hockey-playing children--are aware of that.

"Everyone wants a Harvard education," B.C. Coach Len Ceglarski says.

Harvard can offer not only its 350 years of academic excellence, but a hockey program that is one of the finest in the nation and a coach who starred for Harvard and played in the Olympics.

"I'm fortunate having gone here," Cleary says. "I understand what goes through the kids' minds. There's a lot of pressure on them and you're going to take that into consideration."

Both Belmonte and Tomassoni admit that the advantages of recruiting for Harvard far outweigh the disadvantages. ECAC coaches who have to come up against Harvard in the recruiting wars also concede that Harvard has the inside track when it comes to landing a fine player.

"We're always the underdog when it comes to Harvard," Yale Coach Tim Taylor says. "If Harvard is on top of [the recruit's] list, there's nothing I can do about it."

"Going one-on-one with Harvard for a recruit, we probably wouldn't get him unless he really liked the rural area or didn't want to move far from home," St. Lawrence Coach Joe Marsh says. "Harvard gets the cream of the crop. We tend to get some good kids in the Ottawa Valley and Toronto areas."

Belmonte, now the head coach at the University of Chicago-Illinois, sees the pool of good hockey players growing smaller each year. Athletes are turning to other sports in high school like football and soccer, Belmonte says.

In the future, as the pool of players grows smaller and smaller, the competition for those players will grow fiercer. Even then, though, Harvard will have an advantage over the competition.

"Harvard is an easy sell," Belmonte says. "It's a lot harder to sell the University of Chicago-Illinois. I have to explain who I am, where my school is. We don't have the tradition that Harvard does."

"When I was an assistant at Harvard, I said I'm Val Belmonte and I'm from Harvard," he concludes, "and--boom!--I got attention."