Hockey Canada’s girls’ hockey program uses a long-term development model to teach age-appropriate skills along with a love of the game.Hockey Canada
In 2013, Jeremy Chitiz found himself at a crossroads. He had reduced his course load at Toronto’s George Brown College so that he could take on hours at his part-time job at SK8ON, an elite hockey school for skill development. The school counts as alumni the likes of Vegas Golden Knights defenceman Alex Pietrangelo and Aaron Ekblad, the Florida Panthers defenceman.
After a year working under SK8ON’s founder, Jari Byrski, whom he calls “the pioneer of skill development,” Chitiz realized he had to decide whether to finish his degree or pursue his passion.
The roots of programs like SK8ON trace back to the early 1990s when Canadian sports development began shifting from purely recreational community activities to more structured, skill-specific training. This transition was fuelled by a growing recognition of sports as a pathway to college scholarships abroad, particularly in the U.S. and the increasing professionalism of youth sports.
“This is your niche,” he recalls his parents saying. “You love sports and being with kids.” Chitiz eventually left school to work for Byrski full-time. “I worked with a lot of different NHL players and NHL teams,” he says. “It was really cool to see kids who were just starting out all the way up to the best players in the world.”
Eventually, Chitiz felt ready to strike out on his own. In 2019, he opened XCEL Hockey, a skill development and training school. XCEL runs like a gym, offering weekly classes, team training programs and seasonal camps to help athletes of all levels fine-tune their skills on the ice, from skating to stick handling. “Now you feel a lot more confidence in your abilities, and you’re able now to think about the game and see the game differently,” says Chitiz.
The pathway from grassroots sports to professional leagues is a critical part of Canadian sports culture. Programs like Hockey Canada and Canada Basketball’s Junior Academy are helping nurture young talent, guiding kids from community leagues to elite levels of play, while skill development schools like SK8ON and XCEL instill confidence on and off the ice. Athletes like the Chicago Blackhawks’ Connor Bedard and Natalie Achonwa, an Olympian and former WNBA player, have risen from youth sports programs to the professional level, inspiring a new generation of young Canadians dreaming of making it to the big leagues.
These development programs are key to maintaining Canada’s competitive edge on the world stage and fostering the next wave of Canadian sports stars. Organizations like Hockey Canada use a multi-stage framework called the long-term athlete development model to help guide young athletes through training, competition and recovery. “Players are being taught age-appropriate skills that will hopefully set the foundation for them to have success on the ice, and certainly off the ice as well,” says Trevor Murphy, vice-president of development at Hockey Canada. The goal of the organization, however, is to promote a love of the game. “I know it’s important for the organization’s members to ensure that no matter what experience you have or what level you play you at, there’s an opportunity for you to play and love the game,” says Murphy.
Sport development programs also instill skills beyond the rink, including teamwork, communication and emotional regulation. For example, through co-ordinated drills that require each player to rely on their teammates’ positions and actions athletes learn teamwork, while emotional regulation is taught through techniques that help athletes manage stress and maintain focus during high-pressure games.
However, these programs are not without their challenges. Funding remains a perennial issue, with many programs relying on community donations or limited government grants that may not be enough to reach all interested participants. Accessibility also poses a significant barrier; rural and remote communities often lack the infrastructure and coaching expertise available in urban centres.
Furthermore, the psychological pressure on young athletes can be profound. Research indicates that while youth sports programs can cultivate resilience and mental toughness, they also have the potential to lead to burnout and stress if not carefully managed. For example, research from the School of Sport, Exercise & Rehabilitation Sciences at the University of Birmingham published in the Psychology of Sport and Exercise journal reveals that different pressures – such as performance expectations and competitive stress – can variably affect athletes, sometimes enhancing performance and other times leading to stress and burnout.
This is where the right coach comes in, says Corliss Bean, who studies positive youth development through sport at Brock University, coaches play a major part in imparting these skills. “The more intentional you are in talking about life skills, making those connections with the youth, then practising those life skills in the sport context, the more likely it is that kids will develop those skills and be able to transfer them to other areas of their life,” says Dr. Bean. “That’s kind of the ultimate goal of life: skill development.”
This year, in addition to his role as XCEL’s owner and director of training, Chitiz became a coach to guide the next generation of athletes his own way. “My biggest thing is instilling confidence in kids,” he says. “My team and I try to also make sure that kids are disciplined on the ice. They’re not shooting around pucks; they’re on one knee, they’re focused, they’re paying attention.”
And, in a culture prizing perfection, Chitiz emphasizes the importance of failure. “If you’re not messing up, you’re not trying,” he says. “You may fall down today, you may fall down tomorrow, but one day you won’t fall down.”
