Off-season becoming a thing of the past for some kids

It’s in Sport Canada’s Long-Term Athlete Development plan and to a man — from Hockey Newfoundland and Labrador technical director Paul Dagg, to Hockey Canada’s chairman of the board of directors, Jim Hornell, to private operators Randy Pearcey and Jack Lee — they all agree: more is not always better.

Yet year after year, when the minor hockey season clews up in the spring, some parents are scrambling to enroll their budding superstar in privatelyoperated hockey camps that crop up when ice-time becomes available, before the well-established hockey camps get their summer training programs off the ground.

“I personally don’t think there’s any reason for kids to be on the ice in June,” says Lee. “Sometimes kids need to get away from the rink and enjoy other sports because there’s too much pressure on kids today to perform at a high level all the time. “They need to get away and have some fun.” Lee says all parents and players alike need do is look to the professional ranks for proof.

“When they’re finished playing, they take a break from the game, they take a break from training, they take a break from thinking hockey. And these are professional athletes.”

Pearcey’s Xtreme hockey programs, for example, run end-of-season programs until the end of May, but the summer camps don’t open until nearly two full months later.

In recent years, Pearcey says he’s seen a lot of kids “get burnt out” from all the hockey.

“I’m not down on the parents — I’m running a business here — but I find that kids need time and space away from the rink to organize their own activities.”

Adds Dagg, “If you are solely driven toward hockey, your skills might start to lack elsewhere, and a lot of the good hockey players are multi-sport athletes.”

Hornell says while Hockey Canada wants people playing the sport for life, they recognize making it a 12-month commitment is not in the best interest of athlete development.

“You can create too many experiences in kids that can result in burnout and turn them away from the sport. We don’t want that to happen.”

— File photo by The Canadian Press Wayne Gretzky, who knows a thing or two about hockey, wrote in the National Post on March 25, 2000: “When I was growing up, I used to love this time of year,” said Gretzky, who was penning a column at the time. “It was when I put my hockey equipment...

Jim Hornell