Recently, Springbank Community High School teamed with Global Sport Academy Group in the hopes of starting a hockey program which combined athletic and academic excellence.
“We originally had a hockey academy, but it was run by teachers,” said Michael Fredrich, assistant principal at Springbank. “It eventually fell by the wayside, so when I came here, that was one of the things we looked at starting up again.”
Since there is a hockey rink located right next to the school, Fredrich felt it provided the perfect opportunity to do something with sports, that’s when Global came calling.
“People were asking about a program, and Global fell into our lap,” Fredrich recalled. “We just went with it. One of the things we liked about (Global’s) model was the program was not about just hockey players, it was about student athletes. So, we said we can have academics work with athletics. It’s been a good thing.”
The overall plan of the academy is not just to develop athletes, but to develop participants as people.
“We have a dream of changing youth sport,” said Jeff Ovens, Director of Springbank Sports Academy. “It’s an encompassing goal, and we wanted to start small. We believe that change needs to happen in schools. I have a background in education, and we wanted to provide families and student athletes with an opportunity to hone their skills during the school day, as well as have an opportunity to use and leverage their passion for a particular sport, in this case, hockey.
“We want to try and teach kids the habits and life skills that are required to be successful in anything that they do.”
What was the appeal of starting this academy at Springbank?
“(Springbank) was an excellent choice, because of the amazing administration here,” Ovens said. “The location of the arena to the school, as well as the fact there were a lot of interested families willing to give a first-year program a shot was another reason.”
Has the demand for the program just been from locals?
“It’s been a mix of Springbank families and people from Northwest and Southwest Calgary. We have a bus which does a route around north Calgary each day that picks up six kids. In addition, we have a few girls that come from Cochrane.”
There are three programs that are currently running, a grade nine-12 female program (6 participants), grade nine boys (23 participants), and a grade ten-12 boys program (32 participants).
“We’re really happy with our first year so far,” Ovens said. “Our goal was to over-provide and make sure that we had enough coaches on the ice. The value of the program is there for families to see.
“We aren’t coaches who decide who plays in what situations, or on the power-play, etc. We don’t have a Global team or compete in a league. Our purpose is purely as a skill development program.”
The training regime that participants are put through allows for students to be comfortable both academically and athletically in a team environment.
“Springbank has been very flexible and very accommodating to allow us to form a schedule that works,” Ovens said. “We see the Grade nines two-three times a week on ice. Grade ten-12s we see every day. In a five-day cycle we have them on the ice twice, and one multi-sport day (since we’re big believers in developing athleticism). We also have some off-ice skill development sessions, and on Fridays we do an academic study hall, where we support them and make sure they don’t have any homework during their busy weekend.”
The program isn’t so much rule-based as it is more focused on a person’s accountability to themselves as well as their teammates.
“We’re not big believers in rules,” Ovens revealed. “If you create a good culture of continual performance improvement in life and in sport, then the kids govern themselves.
“Being believers in competitive excellence, we form new teams every month. It doesn’t matter whether they’re competing on the basketball court or in a multi-sport program, or on the ice, they’re competing against one another for points.
“You win points when you do the best projects (in the classroom for example) . Then, you can also lose points, for things like being late on the ice, forgetting a water bottle, swearing, or not handing in assignments on time. It creates internal accountability.”
So, what does the future hold in store?
“Ultimately our goal is to provide this program for other sports,” Ovens revealed. “We want to be able to provide this service in school divisions at multiple locations.
“We’re professionals at building sports academies, and we’ve proven it, We’re lucky to have this opportunity to prove it here.”
Upcoming information nights on the program are being held at Springbank Community High School Dec. 7 at 7 p.m., and Jan. 11, at 7 p.m.
