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Student athletes living a dream at hockey academy

By RON RAUCH, Times Colonist December 10, 2011

The Pursuit of Excellence Hockey Academy from Kelowna is a factory for producing Western Hockey League and NCAA players.

In the last three WHL bantam drafts, 26 players have been selected from the academy and another eight to 10 are expected to go this year, including some in the first round.

The Pursuit of Excellence team is in Victoria this weekend, showcasing its talents at the Rick Lapointe Memorial triple-A bantam tournament. On Saturday, the academy was denied a trip to today’s final after Richmond Seafair recorded a 2-1 overtime victory on Brett Gelz’s goal. Seafair will meet the Calgary Royals in today’s 1:45 p.m. final at the Ian Stewart Complex. Calgary tripped up the Abbotsford Hawks 5-1 in the other semifinal.

The academy had marched through the eight-team competition with five consecutive victories before running into Seafair and hot goaltender Jacob Latrace.

“After our demanding tryouts, we pick 110 players for our six teams [three midget, two bantam and one female],’’ said Troy Mick, the director of hockey operations for the academy. Mick played four years in the WHL with the Portland Winter Hawks and the Regina Pats before being drafted by the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1988.

“For kids who love to play hockey, this is the place to be,’’ said Mick. “We run our program 10 months of the year and from Monday to Friday, they are on the ice for two hours, have off ice skills for an hour and then another hour in the gym. The kids that play for us have to be very dedicated and disciplined. When the kids leave our program, they will be much better players and people then when they came. We stress things like character building, being solid in the community and life skills. We also talk them about dealing with the media.’’

A typical day for the academy players starts at 7 a.m. when they are dropped off at the arena by their billets. They all attend George Elliott Secondary in Winfield for part of the day and then are picked up at 5 p.m.

“These kids are living out a dream,’’ said Mick. “In those 10 months, they become one big family. Those memories will last a lifetime with these kids.’’

Defenceman Tanner Browne from Juan de Fuca is the lone Islander with the bantam team. He is the stepson of former Victoria Salmon King player and coach Ryan Wade, who coaches one of the midget teams at the academy.

In Saturday’s quarter-final action, Pursuit of Excellence blanked Team Seattle 5-0, the Royals downed the Coquitlam Chiefs 6-0, Seafair stopped the Wenatchee Wild 7-2 and Hawks defeated the host Victoria Racquet Club 5-4 in a shootout.