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Fundraising starts for Aboriginal hockey academy

Article Origin

Author

By Sam Laskaris Sweetgrass Writer CALGARY

Volume

19

Issue

1

Year

2011

A former National Hockey League player is hoping to establish a facility in Alberta where students can further both their hockey and academic careers.

Brantt Myhres, who had stints with six different NHL teams, is the CEO and president of the Greater Strides Hockey Academy.

Myhres’ Calgary-based academy currently offers on-ice training programs to various groups. But he’s hoping the academy expands and that by 2013 it also offers a student/athlete academy to Aboriginal youth from across Canada.

Myhres, who is Métis, said academy officials are eyeing a piece of property near Cochrane. The plan is to purchase the land and build a school as well as a dormitory.

The land is about a 15-minute drive from a new three-pad ice facility in Cochrane that could be utilized for the hockey portions of the academy.

“There’s nothing like this across the country,” Myhres said of the proposed Aboriginal academy. “There’s hundreds or thousands of kids that would jump at an opportunity like this.”

The plan is to have about 50 Aboriginal youth, aged 15-17, for the academy’s first year, said Myhres. Half of the school day would be spent taking high school classes and the rest of the time would be on-ice or dryland training sessions.

“We’re looking to produce young leaders,” Myhres said, adding those selected for the academy will be chosen more so for their academic standing than their hockey abilities. “We can teach hockey skills to anybody but we’ll be looking for kids that have the drive academic-wise.”

Myhres said academy officials would be happy if those in the program did move on to a higher level of play.

“That would be nice to have them do well in hockey,” said Myhres, who during his pro career had NHL stints with teams in Tampa, San Jose, Philadelphia, Nashville, Washington and Boston. “But what we ultimately want them to do is to come out of here as better citizens.”

Myhres believes an Aboriginal hockey academy will prove to be beneficial.

“There’s a lot of talented Aboriginal athletes in the country,” he said. “But by the age of 14-16 they fall off the grid and are never heard from again.”

Instead of asking the students’ families to cover all of the costs for those accepted into the program, Myhres is hoping others will help pick up the tab.

“I would imagine some of the bands would want to sponsor some of their kids,” he said.

Talk of the academy, however, is still in a preliminary stage. A fundraising golf tournament, which included about 10 pro hockey players, was held on Aug. 4 in Bragg Creek, raising $50,000 for the proposed academy.
“Let’s just say we need to raise more money,” Myhres said, adding the project will cost several million dollars to come to fruition. “The next step now is solidifying a business plan and doing a feasibility study.”

Myhres said these steps will be completed either later this year or early in 2012.

Besides attracting corporate sponsors, Myhres is hoping the proposed academy will also end up receiving both provincial and federal funding.