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Girls' hockey program on hold

Elite school stalls over sanctioning

By: Nick Martin

Posted: 09/9/2011 1:00 AM | Comments: 0

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Peter Woods

A much-touted new elite hockey academy for girls at Shaftesbury High School won't operate this school year.

"They didn't get their endorsement from Hockey Manitoba or Hockey Canada," said Lawrence Lussier, superintendent of Pembina Trails School Division.

"There were some politics in the hockey organizations that are really preventing this," Lussier said.

The Winnipeg-based hockey organization 2 Nations Female Hockey planned to operate the academy for an initial three years, starting this month. Shaftesbury would educate the girls, 2 Nations would handle the hockey.

The 2 Nations group planned to recruit dozens of the top young female hockey players in Manitoba for an elite academy to be based at Shaftesbury -- as many as 45 girls from grades 9 to 12.

"We're very confident we'll have this program in 2012," 2 Nations spokesman Mike McGetrick said Thursday. "We're not sitting here stewing over anything. It's a process we're following through.

"You do have to have sanctioning from Hockey Canada. These things just take time."

Hockey Manitoba executive director Peter Woods said before his group makes a recommendation to the national governing body, 2 Nations needs to establish a relationship with Hockey Winnipeg (formerly the Winnipeg Minor Hockey Association) and provide more information about its program, such as the ages of the girls it would attract.

"This program has merit -- there's certainly an open door," Woods said.

Hockey Manitoba is not concerned about the Shaftesbury program's skimming off top players from a relatively limited pool of about 280 girls playing at the AAA level in Manitoba, Woods said.

Hockey Manitoba approved the creation of a similar girls' hockey academy this year at St. Mary's Academy, and there is an established elite girls' hockey academy at Balmoral Hall School, he pointed out.

An open house at Shaftesbury last February attracted 50 families, and another 25 families had shown interest in enrolling their daughters, said McGetrick.

With about 700 students, the Tuxedo high school had room for another 100 students, and would have enrolled the students under schools-of-choice policies.

McGetrick said elite hockey academies usually work with private schools, but 2 Nations preferred the public system.

Shaftesbury would provide the education for the student athletes, while 2 Nations would provide on- and off-ice training at nearby Varsity View arena, as well as a kinesiologist and a sports psychologist.

The students would play exhibition games and tournaments against other elite girls' teams in the western provinces and the northern United States.

Lussier said the division and 2 Nations still have a partnership arrangement should the hockey end of the operation come together.

The Manitoba High Schools Athletic Association did not take a position on highly skilled girls playing hockey at other schools potentially transferring to Shaftesbury, said executive director Morris Glimcher, though MHSAA cautioned that under regulations banning recruiting by schools, students and parents had to take the initiative.

The academy would not be allowed to play in the city's high school hockey league.

nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition September 9, 2011 B3

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