Players can hone skills at hockey academy

Times Reporter  

 

For the past four years Strathmore High School (SHS) has offered a hockey academy to their students who are passionate about the sport and want to keep developing and improving their skills. 

“It’s not a totally elite sort of thing but when we do select the kids we select them on how good they are in school, their behaviour, and then we do look at their hockey level and see how serious they are,” said Doug Raycroft, one of the coaches of the academy. 

“We try to run drills that will work on their skills. We’re focused totally on improvement.”

Since all of the students they are working with are required to be on a team somewhere in order to be in the academy, Raycroft, and his coaching cohort Kyle Larson don’t really focus on conditioning. Instead the students will practice things like puck handling, passing skills and shooting skills.

“So they go out onto the ice and we work on hockey skills with the kids, and we back it up with Phys. Ed. So they get 10 credits for working with Mr. Larson and I for hockey,” said Raycroft.

Each year the program has been growing. The first few years it was tough to fill the spaces, but as the program grows so does the popularity. This year there are 31 students taking part in the academy, and approximately 18 had to be turned away. If the numbers increase next year, then Raycroft said the possibility of hosting two groups in the Hockey Academy will be considered.

Westmount Elementary School has begun a hockey school within their school this year as well, which will in a way work with what’s being offered at SHS. Westmount kids will go on the ice with after SHS has finished their session.

“How it ties together is we’re both Golden Hills schools so we’re going to cooperate with each other. We’re going to have some of our students each time, we’ll rotate, go out and mentor and work with the kids on the ice,” said Raycroft.

Raycroft has been the lead teacher of the program for the last few years. He grew up in Saskatchewan, and received an NCAA Division 1 scholarship to the University of Alaska-Fairbanks. He has over 20 years of experience on working with a variety of hockey development camps in both western Canada and the U.S. Larson in the past has stuck more with the sports performance side of things with the kids in the Hockey Academy, but is starting to also spend more time on the ice. For the past 18 years Larson has been teaching Physical Education, and has been the lead Phys. Ed teacher in the hockey program for three years. Both men are also associate principals at SHS.   

The two men try their best to keep the lines of communication open with the coaches of their Hockey Academy students to see if there is a way they can incorporate things the coach think the player needs to work on.

The SHS Hockey Academy students were already on the ice first thing Aug. 31. The academy runs for one semester and there is an extra cost of $400 for those who enroll in it, which primarily pays for the ice time. Raycroft started a blog this year, which he plans to update at least once a month, about coaching and player development for the parents, players and coaches to look at if they wish. Anyone looking for  more information can contact Strathmore High School at 403-934-3135.