A program operating in Airdrie’s high schools offers students enrolled something they have dreamed of forever; a pathway to hockey stardom.
The Global Hockey Academy was established in 2015 and sought to support and enhance public school programming for athletes in communities across Alberta and Saskatchewan.
Any student enrolled in one of the three Airdrie high schools, George McDougall, W.H. Croxford, or Bert Church, can also enroll in the Global Hockey Academy’s program, which offers a special mixed schedule based around sport performance development and academics.
Thirty-nine students across the Airdrie area are in the Global Hockey Academy, which is taught, or coached, by the staff of the Airdrie Bisons U18 AAA team.
Seventy-five per cent of the Bisons team is enrolled in the program, and a lot of the program is made up of athletes from the other elite Airdrie area hockey teams, including the U17 AAA Avalanche, U16 AA Havoc, and the U18 AA Lightning.
The program’s foundation was built on the bedrock of hockey, but for those involved the Academy offers much more than just extra ice times.
“I feel like the narrative around Global in years past is that it’s just a hockey program,” said Tyler Fiddler, the Airdrie area manager for the Global Hockey Academy. “But we’re a life skills program built around hockey.”
Schedules of students in Global are split up by semester, with each semester focused on a steady stream of hockey development and different academic classes.
A typical week for a Global student is pretty organized.
On Monday, they have academics first, taught at the respective schools. Then comes the ice time.
Students are bused to the Ron Ebbeson and skate for an hour before carrying on with the rest of the day.
Tuesday’s begin with academics but are a multi-sport day, where students partake in a wide variety of non-hockey activities at Genesis Place.
Wednesday’s share the same schedule as Monday’s, and Thursday’s are considered the program's “heavy academics day”, where sports are left entirely off the schedule.
Friday begins first thing with an ice time and is thought of by the instructors of the program as a higher intensity competition day because the students are preparing for their respective games on the weekend.
Global students follow the same schedule from September to March, then they transition from hockey to focus on off ice training sessions.
Students replace ice times with strength and condition sessions where students follow workouts planned by X-Factory, a partner of Global’s that's run by Ryan van Asten, the former director of sport performance and strength and conditioning coach for the Calgary Flames and Los Angeles Kings.
“I think there has been a little bit of a transition from past years when it’s been hockey, hockey, hockey,” said Fiddler. “This year the academics are just as important. Being a good person in class and in the community is just as important as being a good hockey player. We’re just trying to drill home the little life lessons that are bigger than hockey.”
According to the Global Hockey Academy’s page on the George McDougall website, the academic portion of the program is set up for students to have no homework, if they use class time effectively.
If students are unable to meet academic standards, they are held back from ice times to focus on improving academics.
The program boasts an impressive success rate.
Village Sports, Global’s parent company, says on their website that 88 per cent of male-student athletes in the Global programs go on to play Junior or Collegiate hockey.
One-hundred per cent of female student-athletes attend colleges or universities for hockey, golf, or academics.
Fiddler said the support the program has received from Airdrie schools has been positive.
“I think it’s an opportunity to work with kids who are passionate about pursuing their dreams and the staff at [Airdrie schools like] George McDougall have been awesome to work with and they see benefits much like we do,” said Fiddler.
“[The program] is meant to be operated as a life skills program so there is heavy emphasis on academics, leadership, accountability, and the importance of being a kind, positive, and respectful human being. The hockey portion comes second and is a privilege,” reads a statement about the Global Academy on the George McDougall website.
Aside from the academic aspect, the Global Academy also functions as almost an extension of a lot of the students' own team practices.
Due to the sheer size of the hockey population pool and lack of available ice times for teams, athletes aren’t getting the appropriate time to hone their craft, according to Fiddler.
“I look at some of these kids and Airdrie’s been growing so fast and the facilities have not been able to catch up,” said Fiddler. “The high schools are at capacity and we only have five sheets of ice and all of a sudden all these teams in all of these leagues are battling for ice time.”
“As a coach it’s tough because do you work on skill development or structure?” continued Fiddler.
“It’s been nice to work alongside some of the coaches to be able to find out what needs to be worked on skill development wise and to let us take on the role to lessen the load on some of the coaches throughout [Airdrie Minor Hockey Association].”
The Global Hockey Academy is a special program that few students across Alberta and Sakatchewan get to experience.
As Fiddler describes it, there really isn’t anything quite like it.
“You get 30 to 40 competitive athletes in one setting, emotions get high but the competitive excellence kind of comes through,” he said. “It’s always fun to watch.”
