Manitoba's 1st boys' hockey academy bringing new life to rural community
Karen Pauls | CBC News | Posted: November 19, 2015 6:33 PM | Last Updated: November 19, 2015
Manitoba's first male hockey academy opened this fall in Pilot Mound, and it's not just providing opportunities for young players – it's giving a small farming community new life.
"What we are finding is a very unique situation where a man who grew up in this area, who had his own hockey career, has come back to his home roots of Pilot Mound and established this academy," said Jack Lovell, head of the Louise Community Development Corporation, which encourages economic development in the region.
"That's sort of a testimony to the people in this area. Many leave; many come back. They bring their skills back with them and these skills are helping to diversify these regions."
"The man" is Rod Collins, general manager and head coach of the Pilot Mound Hockey Academy and its midget team, the Pilot Mound Academy Buffalos.
Collins has coached elite players at an academy in Minnesota called Shattuck-St. Mary's and the Notre Dame Hockey Academy in Saskatchewan.
"A lot of these boys are going to be junior ready for next season," Collins said.
"The focus we have on skill and developing instincts for the game is huge. … The better players I've coached over the years, that's what separates them from the others, is that they develop those special instincts as hockey skills."
The 19 boys from Grades 10 to 12 spend the morning and part of the afternoon in classes at the Pilot Mound Collegiate Institute.
That's followed by an hour and a half on the ice in the community's new recreation complex, as well as about 45 minutes of off-ice training.
Spots cost between $19K and $36K
The academy is a registered hockey sports school with Hockey Canada and Hockey Manitoba. The team will play up to 60 independent games across Canada, the U.S. and Europe this season.
The 19 boys come mostly from Manitoba, but there are players from the U.S., Finland, Slovakia and Ukraine. They pay between $19,000 and $36,000 for a spot, depending on whether they require a billet in town, or if they are an international student.
Collins is hoping to add another team or two next fall, either a bantam team or even a girls' program.
"I don't think you could be in a better situation where you have ample ice time here and facilities that you don't have to travel any distance to get to," he said.
One of the team's goalies, 16-year-old Veikka Koivisto, comes all the way from Finland.
"If you can get a coach like Rod Collins who coached Sidney Crosby and Jonathan Toews, it makes you want to come here because obviously those guys play in the NHL and he has contacts and you can get somewhere if you have a good coach," Koivsito said.
"It's been great. All the guys treat me well enough even though I'm from Europe and I don't know the language perfectly. It's fun."
The team has already provided some economic spin-offs for Pilot Mound, which has a population of 700, and is about two hours west of Winnipeg.
For example, the local restaurant and hotel is expanding to make room for players' families and other teams when they come for weekend tournaments, Lovell said.
Ice time is now maxed out at the local arena, so other teams are now renting ice in nearby towns, which also spreads out the dollars spent on hotdogs and hot chocolate, he said.
'They've been good kids'
Host families are being paid billet fees for room and board.
"They are buying more groceries to feed these hungry young boys … Most shop keepers are saying they notice more sales," Lovell said.
Ginger Collins and her husband are hosting two players, from Roland and Teulon.
"They've been good kids," she said as she fed lunch to a tableful of boys.
"The people that have had them [as billets], they're all happy. It's different having someone in your home when you're not used to it, but it's been good."
The influx of students has also meant classrooms at the local high school are filling up, Principal Wade Watson said.
Last year, there were 67 students. Between the hockey players and a larger Grade 9 class, attendance is now 97.
"It allows us to maintain our staffing and increase it. The more [the] population increases, theoretically the more staff we can get and allow us to expand," Watson said.
"[The players] have been a great influence on the school. They've come in here and they've worked to fit in."
Improvement with 'every practice, every game'
But, back at the arena, the focus is all on hockey.
"I notice it, with every practice and every game, how much we've improved since early September and that's the whole idea of the program," Collins said.
"Things are going very well for us right now."
There are two other public high school academies in Manitoba - a for-profit girls' hockey program at Shaftesbury High and a non-profit soccer academy at Glenlawn Collegiate.
The Winnipeg School Division has also approved in principle a deal between Kelvin High School and The Rink to open an elite for-profit hockey academy for 44 boys next fall.