Kootenay Hockey Academy Partners with Purcell Collegiate School

Purcell Collegiate School (PCS) and Kootenay Hockey Academy (KHA) are pleased to announce an exciting new partnership strategically designed to provide extended and enhanced programming to student-athletes playing for KHA and attending PCS. The PCS-KHA collaboration will see Purcell Collegiate become KHA’s primary education provider which includes a custom schedule to accommodate the on-ice portion of the program. PCS will recruit student-athletes from outside the Kimberley-Cranbrook area to play for the BCHL Cranbrook Bucks-affiliated academy while attending PCS for school and living in PCS’s boarding facility. 

As always, KHA continues to apply school of choice and all recruits are able to choose from a variety of local schools to attend.

KHA student-athletes attending Purcell will benefit from a customized education program at PCS that enables a strategically-integrated and well-balanced experience on the ice, in the classroom, and within the community. Some key elements of this approach include:

• Education innovation: PCS uses a blended-linear timetable that includes both in-class and online learning, enabling players to benefit from in-person instruction when they are at school while having access to online coursework when they are travelling for hockey
• Hockey excellence: KHA’s programming includes over 180 hours of on-ice practices during the school day as well as off-ice training and development bolstered by dedicated strength, skills, and goalie coaches; the team plays in the highly-scouted Junior Prospects Hockey League (JPHL) and is owned and operated by the Cranbrook Bucks
• Community engagement: the partnership emphasizes and enables community involvement with a particular focus on volunteerism and will ensure opportunities are afforded for players to participate in the Uprep@PCS suite of activities, events, trips, and clubs which are designed to prepare student-athletes for post-secondary education and beyond

“Kootenay Hockey Academy is very excited about our partnership with Purcell Collegiate," Said Nathan Lieuwen, President of the Bucks and the Academy. “Teaming up with Purcell will increase the opportunity both for local athletes and for international athletes looking for top level hockey development and high level education.”

Duncan MacLeod, PCS Head of School, echoes Lieuwen’s excitement and enthusiasm. “Our partnership with KHA builds on the groundwork already completed to launch our female hockey program. We’re looking forward to working with Nathan and his team to make Kimberley-Cranbrook an international destination for academy hockey with the goal being programming that produces well-rounded athletes prepared to move forward in hockey, in school, and in life.”