Jeff Costello Commits to the Fightin' Irish

The USHL Blog is reporting what has been rumored for a few days, namely that Waukesha Catholic Memorial forward Jeff Costello has verballed to Notre Dame for 2010. I got a chance to see Costello play with Team Wisconsin Major on their opening weekend at the Kohl Center, and came away pleasantly surprised. My thoughts on Costello were that he was a very good playmaker, but he ended up with as many goals as assists in the Elite League-18 goals and 18 assists for 36 points, which was good for 5th overall.

Costello's verbal is, at least to my memory, the earliest a Wisconsin high school hockey player has ever committed to a Division 1 program. It used to be that players had to finish high school hockey in Wisconsin and play in the USHL before a Division 1 program would offer them a scholarship. Over just the past year or two, Wisconsin high school Seniors have begun receiving scholarship offers and making commitments (LaPoint, Erstad, Soley, Condon). Now, Costello is breaking new ground with a D1 offer and verbal commitment as a Junior.

Here's a nice article (but not new) on Costello from the Journal Sentinel.