The Hockey Skills Development Program is offered jointly by St. Mary’s Academy and Northwestern Hockey Outreach Camps. SMA promotes and administers the program. NHOC, founded and directed by Larry Bumstead, designs and implements a skills program, provides professional coaching staff, and supervises students at the arena.

The goal is to provide participating SMA students with an opportunity to improve their individual hockey skills through a skill development program offered within an extended school day. The ultimate goal is to give each player the opportunity to fully develop to go to the next level.

The skills development program is available for all SMA students (grades 7 through 12) who play hockey on a minor hockey or high school team. It supplements the existing SMA school hockey team program. Students receive 43 hours of on-ice development by certified coaches from the Northwestern Hockey Outreach Camp under the direction of Larry Bumstead.

Program 2009-2010

The program has two components:

• a 12 hour pre-season skill development program the first week in September in the afternoons at Southdale Arena
• a 31 hour skill development program running October - February at River Heights Arena

The pre-season sessions provide an excellent opportunity for players to prepare for the hockey season. Those girls who will be trying out for the SMA Flames are encouraged to participate.

During the October-February portion of the program a maximum of 2 morning sessions per week have been scheduled on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Parents are responsible for transportation to River Heights Arena. Students must be on the ice by 7:00 am. Morning sessions end at 8:00 am. Students have 10 minutes to remove their skates, gather their belongings and board the bus for SMA. Once at SMA they can shower, change and eat breakfast. The cafeteria will be open and breakfast items can be purchased from the menu. Parents can choose to pre-pay an additional $125 for the breakfast program to avoid sending cash.

The programs have limited enrollments and participants will be admitted on a first come basis. Deadline for registration is July 20, 2009.. When the on-ice session is over at 8:00 am the participants will be bussed back to the school. Once at the Academy they can shower, change and eat breakfast.

The hockey development program is a user pay program. Parents can expect to pay in the range of $875 for coaching, ice rental, and bussing.

Download the 2009-2010 brochure

Download the 2009-2010 registration form

Download the 2009-2010 schedule