Members of the Banff Hockey Academy pose for a team picture. (Courtesy of Billy Doherty)

Mitchell Humphries moved halfway across the world to devote his life to hockey for the price of $28,000 a year.

Melbourne, Australia, isn't exactly a breeding ground for hockey stars, after all, so the 15-year-old packed his bags and moved to Banff, Alta., to attend the Banff Hockey Academy. There, he goes to high school and plays hockey.

"My goal is to play division one college hockey," Humphries says. He's not the only one who's traveled a long distance to make it happen, either.

Of the 25 elite hockey players who attend the academy, more than 50 per cent are from outside Canada. They've come from England, Switzerland and Japan, because they want to make hockey a priority while attending high school at the same time.

"Opportunities like this obviously aren't available where I'm from," says Humphries. "The town of Banff plays more hockey than my whole state."

Banff Hockey Academy was unique in providing a joint hockey and school program when it started in 1994, but now there are hundreds of schools across the country that make hockey either a part of the curriculum, or a major priority.

A typical school day in Banff looks like this: students wake up at 6:30 a.m. for breakfast before morning practice, which runs from 7:45 a.m. to 9:15 a.m. By the time they're changed and showered, they've missed their first class at Banff Community High School.

Then it's off to school for the rest of the day. After school there's off-ice training, dinner, and then mandatory study hall for two hours to catch up on what they missed in school at the beginning of the day. By 9:30 p.m., they're in bed.

Then they wake up and do it all over again. This is the routine for the school year, which runs from September to June.

"It's a hectic schedule, and it can be hard to keep up in school," Humphries says. "You have to love it, or you're not going to last."

Bio, math and hockey

Other hockey classes offered in schools across Canada are actually built into the school curriculum so that students get credits for taking hockey. These are Hockey Canada's skills academies, and they're open to anyone who wants to sign up.

"I try to remind people that when you put hockey in the curriculum at the school as a course that kids receive credits for, it shouldn't be regarded any differently than biology, mathematics, or band," says Hockey Canada's director of development, Paul Carson. "It really is part of the school day."

And it's popular. It started in 2001 as a pilot project, and now there are 6,000 students registered in 120 academies across the country.

The way it works is different depending on the school you look at. Yale Secondary in Calgary sees students receive a business credit for taking hockey, because they study the business of the sport. Other schools make it a phys-ed or leadership credit.

"It's my favourite part of school," says Kelsey Young, a Grade 11 student at Belmont Secondary in Victoria, B.C., and one of 30 in the hockey program.

"It's not really like school. At least it doesn't feel like it."

Except it is. Young, who plays AAA major midget hockey, gets a hockey and phys-ed credit for two days of off-ice training and three hockey practices per week. The 30 students in the class pay $650 for the hockey course, which takes up a half day for one semester of the school year.

Take Wednesday, for example. Young heads to school for English class at 9 a.m., then she has a double class of social studies, a quick lunch, and then it's off to the rink for 1 p.m. practice. When the buzzer – not the bell – goes at 3 p.m., the day is over.

"It's pretty awesome," she says.

Gives kids 'a connection with the school'

And if you ask Young, it helps with focus in other classes such as math and English.

"I noticed a huge difference when I was in school all day. The attention span was just not there sometimes," she says.

Retired teacher and former hockey coach Len Barrie Sr. is director of the program and lead instructor, and he says it gives the kids "a connection with the school."

There's an academic requirement to play hockey, so unless the students keep their marks up, they're not playing.

"It's a real great thing, these academies," says Barrie Sr. "They're cropping up everywhere. They've very challenging, but they're highly supportive to the development and skills of the player, whether they're playing for recreation or trying to move up to the next level."

Five years ago, Alexandra Jr. High School in Medicine Hat, Alta., was the first in the city to start a hockey academy. The city is now home to four.

"It's popular because we're able to give these kids who want to play hockey a chance to excel and be excited about their continued learning and education," says Chad Frey, the hockey instructor at Alexandra Jr. High.

"Medicine Hat, it's a pretty big hockey town, there's lots of interest with the kids. I think the amount of hockey academies here is relative to the community and meeting its needs."

The program sees Grade 7 and 8 students on the ice two or three times a week all afternoon. Two classes are available and there are waiting lists for both.

"To be able to incorporate this into school is a great thing," Frey says.

A taste of college life

For the more extreme and intense programs like the Banff Hockey Academy, it's a chance for hockey players to get a taste of what it's like to balance sport and school as they would in college or university.

"Our day resembles very much a college athlete's schedule — and for that matter, a pro player's schedule in terms of the amount of training they go through athletically," says the program's founder and president, Billy Doherty.

"It's a full day, and we do that for 10 months. It really does change an athlete once you start committing the time."

There are goalie coaches, strength coaches, athletic therapists, mental performance sessions — you name it. Doherty is the first to tell kids who apply to the program that it's not for everyone.

"He has to go to bed at night, look at the ceiling and say, 'I can't wait to do this tomorrow,'" Doherty says.

For Casey Rogers, a 17-year-old from Moreno Valley, California, the intensity of the program and the amount of ice time is the highlight.

"That's why we're here," Rogers says. "You're bound to improve, because you're on the ice every day. It's quite intense, but when you know that's why you're here, it's making you better, it's not too hard to go through it every day.

"It's what you want, so you deal with it."