Elite hockey in Okotoks is charging forward with a change that will make a night and day difference.
The Okotoks Oilers Athletic Association has added daytime programming for the Rocky Mountain U18 AAA Female Raiders and Okotoks U18 AA Male Oilers as a means to foster a more equitable access to growth and development.
“Ice is such a challenge in Okotoks,” said OOAA president Dan Laplante. “And when we looked at other elite associations across our province, whether it’s Lethbridge or Red Deer or the quadrants in Calgary or Sherwood Park, St. Albert, there was an inequity between what our elite teams could receive relative to the other associations.
“And then quite frankly we had an inequity with genders here with what we were offering our men’s team relative to our female team.”
The new system brings the Raiders and AA Oilers in line with the Okotoks U18 AAA Bow Mark Oilers starting in the 2021-22 season. The plan is to add the U18 AA Female Raiders squad to this type of programming the following season, Laplante added.
In years past, the Bow Mark team would get up to four ice times per week during school hours with the Raiders held to just two evening practice sessions per week.
“We’ll have four teams in two years that are based in daytime, our two top male teams and two top female teams,” he said. “It allows athletes, anyone who’s involved in multisports or school sports for example, they would have that opportunity.”
Laplante cited Sam Simard as an example of a multisport athlete able to take advantage of the daytime sessions as the Bow Mark Oilers captain in 2019-20 was also able to play Falcons football and basketball and was named the Foothills Composite Grade 12 Male Athlete of the Year.
“It also allows student athletes to focus on their academics in the evening,” he said. “And if someone was holding down a part-time job, too, they would have that option.”
The team will be hosted out of Foothills Composite, but the athletes will be allowed to attend the school of their choice provided they can meet the team requirements.
“Student athletes have the option to choose any school of their choice we just want them to attend team activities,” Laplante said. “So what we’ve done is we’ve got the practices set at the same time every day, so from a planning perspective students can accommodate those schedules as a result.”
New Raiders head coach J’nai Mahadeo said there are a number of advantages to switching the programming to that daytime model.
“From a development standpoint, obviously the more times on the ice, the more time coaches can spend and fine-tune players and help them grow,” Mahadeo said. “It actually allows us some skill sessions and just all around you can build a program and it’s not just coming to practice and working on the system we’re going to play on the weekend.
“You can hone in on those skills that might not be taught on a regular program just because of the time and the accessibility to ice.”
Across the province, Red Deer and Edmonton also feature AAA female programming with host schools. Rocky Mountain would be the third of six teams in the Alberta Female Hockey League’s U18 AAA Division to boast this type of setup.
On the AA side, Laplante was told by Hockey Alberta reps that the OOAA will be the first in the province, outside of sport schools, to offer daytime programming at that level, he said.
“And from the AA perspective, we’re trying to broaden that triangle of development, we’re trying to square that up so people with later birthdays we give them that opportunity to develop and get ready for the next level,” he said.
From an association standpoint, the hope is to get athletes potentially looking at sport school options to stay in the community.
“We want to retain our top athletes and we want to be attracting people to the Okotoks community,” Laplante added. “We’re going to be able to offer academy style programming at a fraction of the price, but it’s two-fold, to retain, but also to attract.”
For more information go to ooaaoilerhockey.ca.
