Saskatoon Public Schools, partnership with Trach Power Skating and Skills is launching a new hockey academy for the 2026-27 school year.

The academy will be offered to Grade 6-8 students at five schools: Chief Whitecap, Estey, Lakeridge, Ecole River Heights, and Willowgrove.

Mark Peterson, who is the Principal of Estey, says that the Academy will give students a chance to split time between the ice and classroom.

“What it will look like, is on Mondays and Wednesdays they’ll get picked up at one of those five locations, they’ll get bused to Jemini Arena and they’ll have an hour of on-ice instruction and then an hour of classroom or leadership instruction, workshops, that type of thing. Then at lunch, they’ll head back to their buildings to join their peers in those five schools for classes in the afternoon.”

Jordan Trach, owner and operator of Trach Power Skating, says that the academy will allow students to learn how to strike a balance between the two.

“I think’s important that families understand that we’re trying to allow the kids to start working on time management at a younger age and how to be a student athlete. we find that it’s extremely important to manage both athletics and academics.”

While the Academy is for students in grades 6 to 8, Peterson says that students can continue their special schooling by coming to Estey from grades 9 to 12.

“It’s created to support athletes and artists that need to miss school because of their training. We want those students to be coming to Estey because our staff is specialized in supporting those kids that are missing big chunks of the day.”

The schools were chosen because each has the capacity to support the academy model, while also being located within one of Saskatoon’s minor hockey zones. The academy will operate for two mornings a week on Mondays and Wednesdays.

An open house for Hockey Academy will be held on February 1st between 7:30 and 8:30 pm and will provide general information about the academy. It is open to families attending or planning to attend one of the five schools offering hockey academy.