End of an era
sydney academy boys hockey team will not take to the ice this year
simple math has ended the high school hockey season for the sydney academy program.
the plug was pulled on play for 2017-18 boys team in the Cape breton high school hockey league because too few players had tried out for the team.
sixteen-yearold goaltender hunter Chenhall of sydney should be playing in his second season with the Wildcats, but will be stopping pucks in midget ‘aa’ hockey instead. his season with sydney academy was cut short last season as well due to the work-to-rule job action that halted all school sports.
“last year was my Grade 10 year and i made the team,” said the Grade 11 student. The players at each high school played in a local midget ‘X’ league last season due to work to rule.
“We didn’t have the best season, but the boys still had fun and everyone tried. i enjoyed it and over the offseason, i was looking forward to coming back and having a rebound year.”
Chenhall said some players at the school had opted to play midget hockey with their friends instead of trying out for the Wildcats squad.
“When I was younger, I’d come watch Sydney Academy play,” he said. “My friends that were older than me, I’d watch them play, it’s what I wanted to do since I came to the school.”
Sydney Academy principal Kevin Deveaux said the team had been plagued by low tryout numbers over the past number of seasons. To ice a team, a minimum of 20 players is needed.
After several years of tryout numbers in the mid-20s, only an estimated 14-16 players had expressed interest in playing for the team this year.
“I feel very sad, but I can’t do anything about declining size,” said Deveaux. “Although we have (Grade) 9s at it we have been shrinking and shrinking every year and it is just a sign of the times.
“It’s an expensive sport to play. I would think less people are playing in the community, maybe in our specific geographic area, which is one of the reasons.”
A declining population, he suspects, would affect hockey more than other sports.
“Parents can afford to have their kids play basketball, but how many parents can afford to put out a couple of thousand dollars from a young age all the way up to this age for hockey?”
The school will pay for some types of equipment from its sports fund and foot the bill for things like regional play and provincials. He said the greatest cost of playing is covered by a player and their family.
“We put in extra money, but the basic cost for a sport, every sport, is user pay.”
The roots of Sydney Academy hockey date back to a frozen pond game against Glace Bay in 1912. The school won its first Cape Breton championship in 1923.
The club was especially formidable in the 1970s and 1980s under the guidance of head coach Dugga MacNeil. They won the first seven Red Cup tournaments from 1978 to 1984, eight Cape Breton Metros tournament titles between 1974 and 1984, nine Cape Breton championships between 1972 and 1982, and eight Nova Scotia School Athletic Federation championships between 1973 and 1987.
Hearing that on-ice tradition will end — for this season anyway — was painful for the team’s former captain.
“It was a great privilege and something I am definitely thankful for,” said Brayden MacKinnon, who played centre for Sydney Academy for three years and served as team captain last season.
“Our school hockey team is looked at very big even though we had a couple of unsuccessful years. Our peers around us look up to us and usually we can lead by a pretty good example at school.”
Playing was expensive, he acknowledged, but the school supported its players where possible.
“Regardless of how expensive it really is they never have closed the door on anybody.”
The start of the new high school season is still more than a week away, but Deveaux was not expecting a last-minute change of plans.
The decision to sit out this season was made as late as possible, but decisions on ice time payments for a full year and tournament registrations had to be made now.
“Without players, there is no reasonable chance,” he said. “I’d go forward if I thought there was a reasonable chance of having the ability to ice a team, but without players, that’s moot.”