Hockey coming to a community near you

Page 27

Young Native hockey players with aspirations to develop their skills to the fullest may find what they need in a new company called Native Hockey Development Camps (NHD).

Taylor Harnett, 26, from Carry the Kettle First Nation in Saskatchewan, started up and incorporated NHD. As the director, he makes policy and decides admissions. Now based in Edmonton, Harnett says NHD is the "only First Nation owned and operated ice hockey development organization" serving Indian and Metis communities on both sides of the international border.

He said other organizations develop hockey players, but his is the only one focusing exclusively on Native youth. The reason, he said, is simple.

"No one else does it."

He said a lot of Native youth are shy and have difficulty making the transition from home to a larger community to learn hockey skills and play the game. His camps aim to provide a 5:1 players-to-instructor ratio, role models who deliver daily talks, and guest speakers who are professional hockey players.

The planning for NHD was "in the works" for a couple of years, Harnett said, and official start-up was last January. He plans to operate all year round.

For instance, their summer camp at Sturgeon Lake, Alta. this year will take in boys and girls aged seven to 18 years, grouped according to age, with 35 in a group, four playing goal. They'll offer them two sessions of a five-day hockey school over two weeks. Harnett said capacity is 100 youth per week maximum.

This year they expect to serve 500 to 600 young hockey players in various provinces.

On-ice instruction will consist of power skating, stick-handling, passing and shooting, checking and physical conditioning.

Off-ice instruction will include dry land training focusing on exercises, pre-game preparation and pre-season training. Daily lectures will cover both on-ice training topics and personal development topics such as teamwork, nutrition, combining education with hockey, and substance awareness.

On invitation from a community, NHD will also run "mini-camps" of three to five days.

"Every community is different," said Harnett. NHD tries to find out what skills the community wants and deliver that program. "We go through chief and council," he said, adding "some bands will fund it." Mini-camps usually consist of 25 to 50 players.

Harnett said there currently is no set fee, that he'll negotiate the service for "what the community is willing to pay."

It's standard, he said, for the community to book the ice, fly Harnett and two staff to the community, put them up and provide meals. He said, "if there are 40 kids, it works out to about $100 a kid."

Girls are not left out. Harnett said, "More and more girls every year play hockey," and they have a "better shot at getting U.S. scholarships than the boys" because "Canadian women are so good at the game."

Currently NHD operates with 10 paid staff and 10 volunteers. Most staff have played or are playing hockey at "a high level of play," according to Harnett, who prior to coaching and instructing attended the Edmonton Oilers main camp in 1995 and previously played Junior A, pro and college hockey.

Harnett's mainstay travelling companions include Christopher J. Willier from Sucker Creek, Alta. who is program co-ordinator for NHD. He has done scouting projects with the Edmonton Oilers, Canadian national team and national junior team, In addition to professional coaching experience in Switzerland and various Canadian venues, he has a master's level of education in coaching.

In a recent press release, Willier stated, "Native youth will benefit from the experience attained in the camp. They will not only develop as a player, but as a person as well. The instructors teach the importance of respect, of being a good person and the importance of education."

The other man who routinely travels with Harnett to the mini-camps is Rylan Ferster, 32, whose full-time job is coaching the Salmon Arm Silverbacks expansion team in .C. In the summer he works for NHD.

He met Harnett at the Okanagan Hockey School in Penticton, B.C. last summer. As a NHD director with 14 years of hockey camp experience, he handles "the on-ice stuff" and sets up the hockey program.

Ferster, a non-Native, brings international playing and coaching experience as well as university business training to the organization. Last year, he said, he was a "coach-co-ordinator in Scotland, for all ages."

What he likes about NHD is "the staff is first-class, very knowledgeable. And individual instruction is paramount. (Harnett) really tries to stress one-on-one.

"There's only one way to take a slapshot," Ferster added. "The game is not complicated, but how you teach it matters most. Mental preparation is huge. We want to create a positive attitude that makes them better players.

"In coaching too," he said, "you are always learning." In NHD, it's not "my way is the right way."

Several other NHD instructors and their credentials are listed on the NHD Web site at www.nativehockeycamps.com.