DIEBOLD COMMITS TO RENSSELAER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE
Tri-City Storm goalie heading to RPI in 2012 following USHL career
Monday, April 25, 2011
- For Immediate Release
KEARNEY, Neb. – After completing his rookie season in the USHL three weeks ago, Tri-City Storm goaltender Scott Diebold has elected to play for the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Engineers following next season with the Storm.
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| Storm goalie Scott Diebold will head to RPI following next season with Tri-City |
Diebold, who went 10-16-3 in his first season with Tri-City, including four shutouts in 35 games, posted a 2.75 goals-against average and .913 save percentage. He said that he knew Rensselaer was the place almost immediately upon visiting the campus following the season.
“As soon as I walked on the (RPI) campus, it felt right to me,” said Diebold, who is a native of Cheektowaga, NY. “I fell in love with community there at the campus and you couldn’t get a better fit with the goaltending coach being the head coach.”
Rensselaer is a NCAA Division I college hockey program located in Troy, NY and competes in the ECAC hockey conference with the likes of Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton, and Yale. Being considered as a top academic school in the United States, the chance to play hockey and receive a high-end education from RPI was important to Diebold.
“You can’t pass up the opportunity to get that kind of education in life.”
“We are extremely excited for Scott, who put in a lot of hard work this past season for the organization,” said Head Coach/General Manager Drew Schoneck. “We are also pleased that he will be back next season and look forward to him continuing to progress between the pipes.”
The 18-year old, who is 6-foot-1 and 145 pounds, was drafted in the 2010 USHL Entry Draft with the 278th overall pick (19th round) by the Storm. Despite being hounded by many schools this past year, Diebold said that he wanted to wait until the season was over before extensively researching schools to further his career.
“I just wanted to focus on the season and not miss practices to visit schools since there are only two goalies for practice and you need them both,” Diebold said. “I wanted to show my teammates that my focus was on the team and not my personal endeavors.”
Diebold says that his choice of major is undecided right now, but he has plenty of time to figure that out before attending classes at Rensselaer beginning in the Fall of 2012.
With Diebold’s commitment, Tri-City had 13 players committed to NCAA Division I schools from this past season. Darik Angeli (Ohio State Univ.), Alex Carpenter (Western Michigan University), Simon Denis (Ferris State Univ.), Cole Gunner (Air Force Academy), Bill Eiserman (UMASS-Lowell), Matt Johnson (Ohio State Univ), Dan Kolomatis (Merrimack College), Cody Murphy (Miami University-Ohio), Rick Pinkston (Dartmouth College), Zack Rall (Univ. of Alaska-Anchorage), Brad Schierhorn (Dartmouth College) and Brian Ward (Dartmouth College).
The Storm organization is preparing for the 2011 USHL Entry Draft on May 16th. Season tickets for the 2011-12 season are on sale now. Call the Storm hockey office today at 308.338.8011 for more information or visit www.stormhockey.com.