Brad Porath – Head Coach
Brad Porath has over 33 years of hockey development and coaching experience at many levels within minor hockey. His ultimate goal is to give each player every opportunity to develop both as a player and a person to balance hockey with lifelong skills. To this end, he is ideally suited to be at the helm of our high school team which has a dual track role of developing the keener, younger players for our Prep team while at the same time providing a venue for those more interested in playing at this level of competition to complete their high school careers in an enjoyable yet competitive way.

After a long and successful playing career at numerous levels, Brad’s drive and respect for the game of hockey made it a natural transition for him to move into coaching. He began with Jackrabbits hockey and slowly but steadily worked his way up through community club to AA and AAA levels. From there, he was head coach of the Silver Heights Huskies High School Boy’s team from 1993-1999 and led the team to four city finals placings as well as three straight provincial births. Coach Porath also scouted for both the Manitoba Junior Hockey League and Western Hockey League from 1996-97 and later coached for both the AAA summer Winnipeg Selects and Manitoba Lightning organizations.

Last year, Brad teamed up with veteran SMA Coach Bob Johnson and SMA teacher Dave Chell to coach the first-ever Flames ‘B’ Division team. Taking on a very young and inexperienced group, they surprised a lot of league teams with a hard-working, pesky team that improved a great deal as the season went on. A core group of leaders from that squad has moved up to the ‘A’ Division team Brad became head coach of when Mr. Johnson retired after an illustrious career behind the bench for St. Mary’s Academy.

Brad enjoys the game at all levels and continues to play in a senior men’s league in Charleswood, where he has been a team leader for several decades.

As a small business owner and contractor, Brad Porath understands firsthand what it takes to earn a living through hard work, integrity and passion for one’s work. He takes pride in his relationships with customers, with his coaches, players and their families and is very proud to have had an association with St. Mary’s Academy for close to a decade now.

Brad and his wife Nancy are parents of three daughters, the eldest who graduated from SMA in 2008, the second who is currently in grade 12 and captain of our High School team and a third daughter who is presently in grade 9 at SMA.


Dave Chell — Team Manager/SMA Director of Hockey Operations
Coaching/Managing Experience: 2010-11 Winnipeg Women’s High School Hockey League, St. Mary’s Academy Flames, Assistant Coach, Co-Team Manager, B Division 1999 – 2004 co-founder, team Manager, Manitoba Lightning AAA hockey team 2005-2007 co-founder, Junior Bisons AAA hockey program • Asst Dir of Marketing/Public Relations, Winnipeg Blue Bomber Football Club, 1983 • NHL Scouting, Winnipeg Jets, 1988-89 • Kirkfield-Westwood Community Club youth hockey, soccer and basketball coach 1996-2004

Dave Chell holds a Bachelor of Arts in Communications/Political Science from Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota where he played hockey and was sports editor of the school newspaper. He also has degrees in Management (1988) and Education (2007) from the University of Manitoba, as well as having completed a major share of course requirements towards a Masters degree in Theology from the University of Winnipeg before embarking on his teaching career in 2007. This followed on the heels of a twenty-plus year career in journalism and advertising, most of it spent at the Winnipeg Free Press. He is now in his third year teaching senior high ELA, Religion and History courses at St. Mary’s Academy.

As Director of Hockey Operations for St. Mary’s Academy, Dave is responsible for not only managing the High school team, but is a critical liaison between Coach Porath and Coach Bumstead of the Prep team in terms of player development, liaison with parents, the school, and universities, and a host of other duties associated with building a rapidly-expanding program from the ground floor up.

Dave and his wife Brita have a son who graduated from St. Paul’s High School in 2009, and a daughter who graduated from St. Mary’s Academy in 2011.

Kristian Chell (St. Paul’s ’09) — Assistant
Kristian had a distinguished AA career on the ice as a perennial captain and scoring leader for the St. James Canadians, as well as stints with the Twins and Rangers over that time. An original member of the Manitoba Lightning, he played in for five years straight in AAA summer tournaments all across western Canada and the U.S. Kristian graduated as a Gold Honor Roll student from St. Paul’s High School in 2009 and currently attends the University of Manitoba, taking courses towards a degree in Medical Rehabilitation, and is in his third and final year of Juvenile A hockey while also playing adult recreational hockey at the Iceplex. He coaches the forwards for this year’s Flames ‘A’ Division High school squad.

Allison Rothwell (SMA’11) — Assistant
A Stonewall, Manitoba resident, Allison was a double-carded goaltender during her high school years playing both SMA Flames ‘A’ Division and Interlake Ice (AA) hockey for the past two years. She was a valuable member between the pipes of the Flames teams that advanced the last two years to the City Finals. Allison graduated last June from SMA with honors and is now a student at the University of Winnipeg, enrolled in the Faculty of Sciences where she plans to study kinesiology. She is in charge of the defense for Coach Porath on this year’s High School ‘A’ Division squad, as well as working with both goaltenders.