Pursuit of Excellence/Pursuit of Excellence About.mht
The Pursuit of Excellence Hockey Academy combines a very intense comprehensive
hockey development program, a school with high academic excellence,
participation in a very competitive minor hockey league, and an unparalleled
training program for acquiring rock solid life skills and life values.
Hockey players (age 12-17) from around the world come to Kelowna, British
Columbia, Canada each September to spend 10 month participating in an
unprecedented 1000 hours of hockey development training. The Academy achieves
incredible results with players because it has the right blend of hockey
development and game experience. (a practice to game ratio of approximately 10
to 1) The Academy fosters the ideal learning environment with no undue pressure
placed on players to win, where the coaching staff is extremely positive and
encouraging, and where the player's self-esteem is more important than their
scoring stats. The discipline, structure, inspiration and role modeling are in
place every day to help maximize each player's potential on and off the ice.
Aside from the ice time for games, the training ice time alone is the equivalent
of 5 years of minor hockey in 1 year. The program, however, is still very
affordable because the parents' money (and the player's time) is directed more
toward additional ice time, specialized training such as boxing, sports
psychology, nutrition, increased off-ice training, skill sessions, and towards
educating players more about the game, rather than money being spent on airfare,
hotels, and in restaurants which is normally associated with a long season of
traveling to games and tournaments.
The Academy's players are exposed to a lot more than just on-ice and off-ice
sessions. On a daily basis, every player, in addition to 2 hours on-ice and 1
hour of off-ice training, has a 1 hour skills session and 1 hour of Pursuit
class. So, every day, players are working on either shooting or stickhandling,
and they are learning some new aspects of the game. It is not uncommon in our
program for players to increase their slap shot speed by 17 mph in the first 3
months, or increase their sprint speed to a puck by 5 mph in the same time
period. Imagine what these changes, even in 10 months, would do for your game.
The Director of the Pursuit Academy, David Roy, who has been the skating coach
for the Dallas Stars, Vancouver Canucks, Philadelphia Flyers, and other
organizations including Canada's Women's Olympic Team, insures that the skating
development of the Pursuit players is priority number one. Using the program he
has developed over the last 35 years, combined with on-ice video projection,
video analysis, VERT computerized resistance training, and with some aspect of
skating worked on each day, the transformation in the players' speed, quickness,
agility, and skating efficiency is incredible.
Of equal importance to David and the Pursuit Academy, is the development of
every player's character and values. Through traveling to Mexico to build houses
for the poor, serving food to people off the street at the Gospel Mission,
sponsoring children from Third World countries and through many other
opportunities, the Pursuit players experience humility, gratitude, servant
leadership, and the importance of having a faith in God.
The Academic achievements of the players are just as impressive as the hockey
development. Players are able to continue in the Academy right from Gr 7 through
12. The Academy school (operated through the Kelowna Christian School) has the
highest academic record of all the schools in the Okanagan Valley. The Director
of the school program, Erin Hussey, is committed to providing an academic
program tailored to each individual student because of the diversity of
educational systems these players come from. So, for example, a player from New
Jersey, or Switzerland, or Australia, is not simply given a British Columbia
course curriculum, but rather the courses that are based on what their
particular school system requires, should they return to that school at the end
of the academic year.
When you add to all of this, the fact that our players participate on a Midget
AAA, Bantam AAA, or Bantam AA team in a very competitive minor hockey league, it
is no wonder we continually receive emails from parents and players stating that
the Pursuit has changed their future in hockey and changed their lives. View
testimonials.
CONTACT:
http://www.pursuitofexcellence.ca/contact.html
Thank you very much for your interest in the Pursuit of Excellence Hockey
Academy.
If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact us:
PO Box 21009 (Orchard Park)
Kelowna, BC
V1Y 9N8
OFFICE: 250-491-4160
FAX: 250-491-1367
Email: contact@pursuitofexcellence.ca
Website: http://www.pursuitofexcellence.ca
See you on the ice!
