St. Mary’s Academy shutters prep hockey program

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This article was published 20/02/2025 (233 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Members of the St. Mary’s Academy U18 prep hockey team are playing with heavy hearts following news the school has shuttered the program beyond this season, the Free Press has learned.

School officials informed families in late November the SMA Prep Flames team would play its last season in 2024-25. It wasn’t until recently, after all avenues to save the club were exhausted, that the magnitude of the situation started to sink in.

“I look at 18 faces every single day at practices and games and trying to keep the outside noise away from the dressing room and how disappointed they are,” said head coach Larry Bumstead. “The graduating players are very concerned about their teammates and where they’re going to play next year. We’re trying to keep things upbeat and focus on the games at hand and that’s the really disturbing part. How do you address this with the girls?”

Bumstead has been with the Flames, who play in the Canadian Sport School Hockey League, since their inaugural season in 2011-12. It’s a hyper-competitive club that’s on the ice four to five times per week, has off-ice training regimens and travels to compete against other prep schools in Canada and the U.S.

The program has been a major point of pride for players and their families, who pay more than $20,000 per year to attend St. Mary’s Academy – a private all-girls Catholic school that runs from grade 7 to 12 – and play for the hockey team. For many families, it’s been the perfect student-athlete environment owing to the school’s strong focus on academics while also providing a highly competitive atmosphere for girls looking to pursue their hockey careers beyond high school.

Bumstead noted over the last five or six years, only one player was unable to crack the honour roll and two of the school’s last three valedictorians were on the hockey team. There are also more than 60 players who have gone on to play hockey at universities in Canada and the U.S., with all five graduating players this season presented with similar opportunities.

“They have to be a great student to play the game here,” added Bumstead, who had two daughters go through the program. “Whenever a post-secondary school has reached out to me, they don’t even ask about school because they already know that girls aren’t here to just drift by and play hockey.

“I look at 18 faces every single day at practices and games and trying to keep the outside noise away from the dressing room and how disappointed they are.”–Larry Bumstead

“So, why is this happening to these girls?”

The Free Press reached out to SMA for comment and the school confirmed this would be the final season for the prep team. The school added they are keeping the more traditional, but less competitive hockey program that currently plays in the Manitoba Women’s High School Hockey League.

“This was an incredibly difficult decision and was made only after careful consideration. Several factors contributed, including the significant resources required to sustain the program,” a school spokesperson said over email. “Throughout this transition, we remain committed to supporting our students with academic guidance, as well as pastoral and emotional care. We are incredibly grateful to the athletes, families, and coaches who have been part of the Flames Prep program.”

Parents who spoke to the Free Press said they appreciated their time at SMA, but the way the school went about cancelling the program has left a bitter taste in collective mouths. They contend SMA kept them in the dark for months, only to reveal the news after key deadlines that could have led to creating another quality hockey home had already passed.

Jamie Bettens, whose daughter is in Grade 10 and in the first year of the hockey program, said he was shocked by the news the team was shutting down and added there were no indications this was on the horizon. He takes umbrage with the school’s explanation for closing the program and said the timeline in which they did it leads to more questions than answers.

“If we needed to allocate more money to be able to afford for the teachers or for whatever, we were willing to pay it, right on the spot even, to ensure this program kept going.”–Jamie Bettens

Bettens said parents were perplexed to hear finances and resources were the reasons the program was being shuttered given it’s fully funded by the fees families pay each year. He added the school never once asked parents to pay more money or help with fundraising, options that would have been supported by the families.

“The budget for the program, that number is simply divided up between the players on the team,” Bettens said. “Those budgets are approved by the school prior to the season.”

The school is responsible for the administrative work, with $13,000 of the player fees allocated to cover those costs. What’s more, SMA also keeps the profits each year for the annual showcase tournament put on by the school, which can be upwards of tens of thousands of dollars.

“If we needed to allocate more money to be able to afford for the teachers or for whatever, we were willing to pay it, right on the spot even, to ensure this program kept going,” Bettens said. “And the response that we got, word for word, was a ‘Hard no.’”

Scott Nicol can barely get through his first sentence before a lump starts to form in his throat. His daughter Maggie is in her senior year and is the captain of the Flames.

He’s not looking for pity, understanding there are much bigger issues in the world today, but that doesn’t mean his heart doesn’t break for the families who are left scrambling to find an alternative plan for their daughters next year. While his daughter is set to continue her career south of the border, those with kids in grades 10 and 11 are now left to find another school or team, which may or may not pan out depending on available spots.

“Maggie wouldn’t be the hockey player or the woman she is without the program, without (Bumstead),” Nicol said. “It was devastating news to hear.”

Nicol is puzzled by the school’s decision. He sees it as a major missed opportunity for future students, especially as the women’s game continues to grow.

What’s bothered him the most, though, is how the school waited until it was too late for the families to do something about it. While the team was informed in November, the school let it slip the decision was actually made several months earlier, back in May.

Those lost months would prove to be disastrous.

The team was able to find a company to back them — in this case, True North, the company that owns the Winnipeg Jets — and had started talks with the University of Winnipeg Collegiate to open a prep hockey program there. It wouldn’t be long into the process before they found out the deadline to submit a new team was in September, and Hockey Manitoba’s hands were tied.

“They decided our fate in May and then allowed (Bumstead) to continue to recruit girls, some from out of province, that uprooted their entire lives to come here and play hockey, only to be told eight months later that they’re shuttering the program,” said Nicol.

When asked what went into waiting until November to inform parents of the program being cancelled, the SMA spokesperson said: “At this time we don’t have an additional comment.”

The Flames still have a handful of league games remaining and are in a fight for their playoff lives. While their current circumstances have made playing for the school challenging, they’ve used the situation as a rallying cry to grow closer together and enjoy their final season together as a team.

“The team has adopted the catchphrase of ‘Play for Us,’” said Nicol. “They want to keep playing for each other.”

Jeff.Hamilton@freepress.mb.ca