The local Hockey Canada Skills Academy (HCSA) program is expanding to four more schools in the area.
The program, which kicked off in Sept. 2022 at Parry Sound High School (PSHS), gives students in Grades 8 and above a chance to earn credits while developing individual hockey skills and knowledge, healthy living habits and team-building skills.
Near North District School Board (NNDSB) officials say this coming winter, sessions will be offered to Grade 8 students at the PSHS as well as students at Humphrey Public School, Nobel Public School, McDougall Public School and Wasauksing Kinomaugewgamik School.
AJ Wheaton, qualified HCSA instructor and PSHS teacher, says the program grew out of a desire to promote interest and growth in the hockey program at the local school.
“There were supposed to be six sessions, but unfortunately, two of them got cancelled due to snow days and bus cancellations. We ended up doing four sessions on Thursdays throughout February and March and it was part of an initiative to get people interested in the Hockey Canada Skills Program which we offered at PSHS,” he says.
participate in the Hockey Canada Skills Academy program offered by Parry Sound
High School.; Photo provided by NNDSB
Wheaton says the local high school was the first school at the NNDSB to offer the HCSA program as a credited course. “We had students during the program’s first semester from grades 9 to 12 in the program and I’m pleased to say things went so well that we’re looking into actually expanding next year into a two-credit program, and not only at our high school but throughout the board. Almaguin and Mattawa high schools are running the program next year as well,” he says.
Wheaton says a question he gets asked repeatedly is “what is this program actually about”. “We certainly have a lot of people who think that somehow it’s some kind of hockey team that we are forming, and it’s not. It’s an individual skills program, so students are learning about hockey skills. Everything from skating, puck handling, and passing to tactics about deception and different manoeuvres and strategies they would employ in a hockey game to better themselves individually as players,” he says.
almost immediate improvement in their abilities.; Photo provided by NNDSB
Wheaton says a nice thing about this program is that instructors can cater it to just about anybody from students who have no hockey experience up to ones who are quite involved with the game. He says the program’s first run saw around 30 students. “We had a number of players on the ice who had little to no hockey experience at all. [They] just decided to come out and give it a try. We had everything from literally no experience up to kids who played AAA-level hockey. We also had at any given point up to nine different females participating in it as well which is nice to see some young girls involved with the sport,” he says.
Wheaton says students arrive at the rink in the morning and begin an off-ice warmup followed by two one-hour on-ice sessions where they focus on individual hockey skills and tactics. “After a lunch break the students participate in an hour-long off-ice session that varies depending on the day. Off-ice sessions will consist of hockey theory, hockey training and testing and floorball skills,” he says.
The board says skills training is supported by volunteers and community partners as well as some local students who participated in the first semester of the program. Wheaton says parent volunteer Jay Thomas, Wasauksing Education Counsellor Mike Kalfus and Chris Lawrence helped with the first semester’s hockey program at PSHS.
The board adds that Kalfus has been involved in the program since the first day it was brought to town.
“For the Grade 8 kids from Wasauksing, I introduced the program to our school and facilitated participation for as many of our Grade 8 students as possible. My hope is that students will get support, growth, a feeling of belonging out of the program. To be able to actively work together to give each student a reason to go to school is a good thing. This program is a very real example of the adults coming together to benefit the kids, at their level,” Kalfus says.