The Cranbrook Bucks’ Kootenay Hockey Academy and Purcell Collegiate are joining forces to provide a U18 men’s hockey program.
“We are really excited to be moving forward with a partnership with Nathan Lieuwen and the Kootenay Hockey Academy,” said Purcell Collegiate head of school and CEO Duncan MacLeod.
Bucks co-owner Nathan Lieuwen says they have been working out the details for a while and believes this partnership will help grow the academy.
“We’ve been in touch for quite some time on the opportunity here to work together and over the past couple of months it’s become pretty clear that this makes a lot of sense for both parties,” he added.
The Kootenay Hockey Academy has been partnered with Kootenay Christian Academy for the past two seasons.
Purcell Collegiate introduced a women’s 19U hockey academy in the fall semester, which has already been seeing a lot of success on the ice.
MacLeod says the partnership will help the Bucks tap into the international player pool.
“One of the things we’re looking to do and working hard on out of the gate is activating international recruiting channels. The Kimberley/Cranbrook region is a historically rich region for producing hockey players and is a wonderful place to go to school,” he said.
“What we’ve seen with the 19U team is a significant subscription from the international market and we’re looking to help Nathan bolster his roster in that regard with education programming that fits for those kids.”
He says having a strong hockey academy in the region also helps local kids stay here longer.
“It provides our kids with an opportunity to stay home,” he said.
“Lots of our kids do leave for Kelowna, Vancouver, other parts of Canada and the United States and if we can provide them with an opportunity to stay here and compete at a level that will help them progress we are really excited to do that.”
The Kootenay Hockey Academy will finish off the school year as normal and the partnership will begin in September.
MacLeod says they will be providing more information and announcements between now and then.
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