Provincial government sees benefit of Aboriginal hockey academy

There’s still plenty of work to be done and money to be raised.
Yet Brantt Myhres, the former National Hockey League player who is hoping to launch an academic/hockey academy in Edmonton, is encouraged by some recent meetings.

Myhres, who is Métis, is the CEO and president of the Greater Strides Hockey Academy, a Calgary-based company which offers training programs to hockey groups.

Myhres is hoping the academy, founded in 2011, will expand and become a private school, offering academic classes as well as hockey instruction to Aboriginal youth across the country.

He is hoping the academy can open its doors in September of 2014 with its first batch of students (perhaps 60-70).

Myhres is encouraged by the approval his program has received from the provincial government.

Earlier this year he met with Alberta’s Aboriginal Relations Minister Robin Campbell.

“He was really supportive of our vision and how we want to accomplish it,” Myhres said of Campbell.

And this meeting was followed up with a meeting with Jeff Johnson, the province’s Education Minister.

“He’s pretty much on the same page as the Aboriginal Relations minister and that there is a need for something like this,” Myhres said.

Those in the proposed academy, aged 15-17, would take high school classes for half of the school day. The other half of the day would be spent on either dryland training or on-ice hockey sessions.

Myhres had originally hoped to build the academy near Cochrane but academy officials now say the facility would be better located more centrally in Edmonton.

The academy has staged a pair of fundraising golf tournaments in each of the past two summers. To create more attention for the program academy officials will be running a week-long camp for 100 Aboriginals this year from June 1-5 at the River Cree Resort and Casino in Enoch.

Those in this camp, which will be funded by the Rupertsland Institute, will receive a high school credit for attending. 
Classroom sessions will be held during the mornings followed by afternoon on- and off-ice training workouts.

“The more we do in the community the better,” Myrhes said. “We only started two years ago and we’re trying to put together a multi-million dollar school.”

For the first few years of the proposed academy, Myrhes said Greater Strides officials are hoping to lease a facility, between 6,000-7,000 square feet, for the classrooms and dorms for the students to live in. He estimates the annual cost for leasing such a facility will be $200,000.

“One day we want to expand in our own facility,” Myrhes said, adding such a building is expected to cost between $5 million and $7 million.

“My goal is to pound the pavement now and to find some sponsors to get a school going.”

Myrhes, who is 38, last played in the NHL during the 2002-03 season. During his pro career he played 154 games with six teams, Tampa Bay, Philadelphia, San Jose, Nashville, Washington and Boston.

Known primarily for his toughness, Myrhes was assessed 687 penalty minutes while picking up eight points.