Trojans inaugural hockey school welcomes over 100 kids

Aug 31, 2026 | 4:22 PM

The Tisdale Trojans recently hosted their inaugural summer hockey school, bringing in more than 100 athletes over two weeks.

The organization started the school to give Northeast area youth a chance at earlier ice time and development ahead of their minor hockey seasons.

“It’s tough in the Northeast; there’s not a lot of ice and not a lot of early ice for these kids. When you see what the city teams are doing and able to get going early and all that, we just felt that it was a huge opportunity for some of the Northeast kids to get some good instruction on how to play and develop skills and stuff, but also to just get that early ice,” explained Trojans’ head coach Wes Rudy.

“It wasn’t a small undertaking because the ice had to go in two weeks early in Tisdale for this to happen, and there was a lot of scheduling things and a lot of time and effort put into this. I was only there for the last day or two of it, but it was evident how much work was put into it by our staff. I think just from the response of the people and parents sitting in the stands and watching, though, it was an overall success for sure.”

The kids attending the hockey school were split into U15, U13, U11 and U9 groups, with each day including on-ice skill development, off-ice workouts, shooting and skills sessions.

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They learned from Trojans coaches, along with a handful of current Trojans players.

“I don’t think we could have the hockey school without the support and commitment of our players. Most of the comments we got were, ‘Was it ever nice to see the kids be able to spend some time with the Trojans’. They want young, fresh faces there, and they want to see the people that they go watch, or that their kids go watch play hockey, that’s who they want to learn from,” Rudy added.

“It’s also always good to get those kids thinking Trojans, especially our local kids, and most of the kids that were at the camp were local kids. We saw an area where we can maybe help these kids develop a little sooner, so when they go to their camps and their tryouts, they’re not just going out on the ice for the first time for those.”

The summer school is likely to become a recurring event for the Trojans. Only two spots were left unaccounted for the first week, while the second week was fully booked; a handful of kids signed up for the second week after enjoying the first.

“I think everybody that was involved would like to see it continue for sure,” Rudy concluded.

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Ben.Tompkins@pattisonmedia.com

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by Ben Tompkins

Trojans inaugural hockey school welcomes over 100 kids

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