New hockey program shows signs of success

Times Reporter

 

In May, Westmount Elementary School announced they would be offering a new hockey program this fall. The program is open to all Westmount students in Grades 5 and 6. There was space for 24 students, and that is exactly what they got. 

Golden Hills School Division worked with transportation so all of the kids can bring their gear on the bus in the morning and home in the afternoon, they just aren’t allowed to transport their hockey sticks for safety reasons. Some of the Strathmore High School (SHS) students who are in the SHS Hockey Academy will also be staying on the ice after their own hockey program to help mentor some of the kids.

“That’s a neat partnership for us to have, to have those older kids. A lot of them play some pretty elite level hockey, some of them are AAA midgets or AA’s and staying on the ice to help our little gaffers, I think that’s a really neat connection that we have,” said Wayne Funk, Westmount’s principal. 

Of the 24 kids who signed up for the program, there are 19 returning Westmount students, and five kids who are new to the school and have transferred in to be part of the hockey program. The classroom time is regular class time with Grade 5/6 split, and Funk said it’s a regular class that gets ice time. 

Up until March when the ice time ends the kids in the hockey program will be a little bit short on social and science. Once April comes around all the time spent doing hockey will then be put back into social and science, balancing everything out in the end. 

The program is about teaching skills to the kids, and for some helping them learn the game. 

“Lots of skills, lots of skating, lots of puck movement. It’s not going to be a lot of team strategy kind of things because they’re not on a team together, and there’s a pretty wide range of abilities. We’re just looking to improve everybody’s skills as best we can,” said Funk. 

The plan is to keep the class size at 24 students, but Funk hopes to see the program grow and eventually have separate Grade 5 and a Grade 6 classes.