Scoring Credits at Bear Creek

http://www.thebarrieexaminer.com/2017/02/06/barrie-high-school-offers-two-credit-course-with-on--and-off-ice-components

Do you like hockey so much that you wish you could study it in school?

At Bear Creek Secondary School, that's become a reality.

During this past fall, the Barrie high school started up the Bear Creek Hockey Canada Skills Academy, its two-credit course designed around on- and off-ice components of the sport.

“This is a program that is not only endorsed by Hockey Canada, but developed with them at the Hockey Canada level and also in concert with the individual curriculum for the schools that have this in place,” said Ed Garinger, teacher and director of the program.

“This blends not only the Hockey Canada curriculum that they've shared with us but also the expectations of the credits that the students are granted.”

Having a program of this nature is something that Garinger, a former junior hockey coach, has been interested in for some time.

“Essentially, I've been researching a program for several years and trying to do my due diligence,” Garinger said. “When I proposed it back in the fall of 2015, the second time I'd proposed it, our administration on the school had to sign off on it as at the board level.

“We also had to get approved by the Barrie Minor Hockey Association and the Ontario Hockey Federation.”

The program is an inclusive one, with both male and female students playing hockey anywhere from house league to midget 'AAA'.

Throughout the semester, the students would be on the ice two-to-three times a week, with the other days involving learning sessions and dryland training.

“A normal week was on the ice at the Holly Rec Centre on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and they had to be ready to do their dynamic off-ice warmup at 8 am,” Garinger said. “They'd get quickly changed and on the ice at 8:30 until 9:50, and then we'd do a short talk after they were off the ice, and then they'd go back to school in time for lunch.

“On Tuesdays and Thursdays, we were at the school, in the classroom for the first two periods of the day,” Garinger added. “We would do some off-ice training, but we would also be in the classroom, talking about the sport, inclusiveness, and its impact around the world.

“We did a lot of work with World Girls Hockey Day, and they had the opportunity to be trained in coaching and officiating, as well as trainers, and had the opportunity to receive certification as a trainer.”

Those who might have thought this would be a bird course were sorely mistaken.

“The curriculum expectations that they need to be able to demonstrate in order to be successful in order to earn a credit were (sizable),” Garinger said. “I'd be lying if I said there weren't a couple of students who thought that it would be an easy credit to just come out and play hockey, but they found out that there was a lot of structure and they're expected to demonstrate the learning they're expected to acquire throughout the course and do it a proper way.

“There are serious expectations set forth by both the Ontario curriculum and the one set forth by Hockey Canada,” Garinger added. “The students learned a lot of things that perhaps they didn't know they'd learn entering the course, but at the end, they all were appreciative of what they'd learned.”

Over the semester, the group took a number of field trips, going to places like the Hockey Hall of Fame and the ECHL Brampton Beast's training facilities.

There were also some prominent figures coming in as guest instructors and speakers, such as former NHL goaltender Curtis Sanford, Team Canada sledge hockey player Brad Bowden, and Rachel Flanagan, head coach of the Canadian National Team at the World Universiade Games.

Garinger, who noted that the administration at Bear Creek played a huge part in the success of the program, found that his students were blown away by how much more they'd gotten out of the course than they had initially expected.

“One of the final assignments for the end of the course was to explain what they'd learned and what they need to improve on, as well as how they could use what they'd learned in the course in other aspects of their life,” Garinger said. “When I was reading the assignments, one of the themes was that they'd learned way more than they had expected to when they entered the class.

“It wasn't just on the ice things, but fitness and nutrition and game strategies that they can implement with their own teams.”

At the end of the day, Garinger is very happy with how the program ran in its first year.

“I think it's a great course to have at our school,” he said. “It provides an alternate way to achieve the expectations of the curriculum while cultivating and interest and love in the sport that many of these kids already have.

“It's not just for students that are elite hockey players, but also those that might be newer to the game, that want to improve and learn more about the game and different aspects of it, such as coaching, training or officiating, that they can use in the course and as they move through their lives.”

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