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School district OK’s hockey at REM, Yorkson

Hockey skills academy will be offered in Willoughby beginning September

Five years after first trying, a hockey academy is finally coming to Willoughby.

“We tried before, but couldn’t pull it off,” said Darrin Ponak, a teacher at R.E. Mountain who will serve as the hockey director.

“We have a good leadership team up at the (school) board office that is really helping promote it as well.

“What they are after is an academy that will sustain itself, similar to what LSS has with the Blaze.”

Both Mountain and Yorkson Creek Middle School will have hockey academies after getting approval at last week’s Langley School Board meeting.

A hockey academy is also being offered at Langley Secondary next year (see side story) but while that one is teacher-driven, this one will see an affiliation with an outside organization, similar to LSS and their baseball academy, which is run with the Langley Blaze.

The Mountain and Yorkson academies will be tied in with the junior A Langley Rivermen as well as the Fraser Valley Thunderbirds of the B.C. Major Midget Hockey League.

The academies will be skill-based, meaning the students do not play on a school team.

The coaching is expected to be done by Thunderbirds coach Bill Grieve as well as someone from behind the Rivermen bench.

Grieve has coached for more than 10 years in minor hockey before joining the Thunderbirds.

The students — who will receive a PE credit for completing the course — will spend their hockey block on the ice at the Langley Events Centre. And when the ice comes out in the spring, the students will work with Langley’s Impact Hockey Development, who run a strength and conditioning off-ice program.

Assistant superintendent Gord Stewart said it makes perfect sense to utilize the nearby facilities of the LEC.

With such a population boom in the Willoughby area, Stewart said the middle school hockey academy will only be available to students in the Yorkson catchment area. There may be room at the Mountain academy for out-of-catchment students, but first priority will be given to students in the area, he said.

Cost of the academy will be $2,000.

For more information, visit www.remountainhockeyacademy.com or call 604-807-8598.

There is also an open house set for June 10 at 7 p.m. at R.E. Mountain Secondary (7755 202A St.).