Advanced Development Program U13/U15

March 23, 2024

2024 / 2025 - Advanced Development

Program Overview

Our history:

In 1937, sports-minded community league members recognized the need to give athletes from schools and community leagues a more competitive environment in which to develop their athletic talents. It was from this idea that the Canadian Athletic Club was founded. Today, the Canadian Athletic Club ices 8 teams from U13 through U18 in a variety of leagues sanctioned by Hockey Alberta and Hockey Canada.

Our mission:

To offer an elite hockey program providing players the opportunity and environment to enhance their hockey and interpersonal skills. Above all, we value Character, Attitude, and Community.

Our arena:

The Canadian Athletic Club is very fortunate to own and operate our own arena. This facility allows us to combine ice allocated to the club by Hockey Edmonton with prime time ice at the CAC arena (inclusive of pre-scheduled time slots for improved consistency in weekly team schedules). The CAC arena also features classroom space and a large hall to allow for club meetings, team meetings, fitness sessions, and extended CAC family gatherings.

Our Advanced Development Program (24/25):

Coaches - we are committed to securing the best coaching staff to run our new advanced development program. Coaches will be hired or retained much earlier in the program cycle to ensure we’re ahead of our competitors. CAC went to market in February 2024 for coach recruitment with the intention of fulfilling positions ahead of our April ID skates.

Player Identification - players are strongly encouraged to attend our April ID skates as an opportunity to be identified, evaluated, and committed to by our coaching staff. The ID skates also an opportunity to learn more about our program and facility. The initial set of ID skates are now open for registration and are scheduled for the evenings of April 23 and 24, 2024. A followup ID series will be scheduled in early June if required.

Games / Competition - our U13 ADP program offers the best access to team level competition in the market. Teams will play 30 scheduled league games and 4+ playoff games. Beyond that, teams have unlimited access to tournament play across Canada, Hockey Alberta Provincials, and the Hockey Alberta elite stream which includes both the Prospect’s Cup and Alberta Cup showcases. Game play summary: 67.5 hours (~3hrs / week) of prime-time game play at the U13 AA level.

Player development model - our player development program is underpinned utilizing two highly successful frameworks: A) The Hockey Alberta Elite Model: Alberta Built and B) The Canadian Way Principles as outlined in the Canadian National Team Program technical curriculum.

On-ice development - our players receive 4-5 hours of development ice per week. This includes 2-3 teams practices per week, 1 player development session per week, and 1 goaltender specific session per week across a set schedule for the season. Our development partners include Perfect Skating (player development) and Ian Gordon (goaltender development) for the 2024/2025 season. On-ice development summary: ~90 hours (4.5 hrs / week) of on ice development across the course of the season.

Off-ice development - this encompasses our commitment to long term athletic development and includes team sessions specific to strength, speed, agility, mental performance, elite athlete nutrition, and video training sessions. Off-ice vendors are selected by the coaching staffs for the 2024/2025 season. Off-ice development summary: ~25 hours (1.25 hrs / week) of off-ice development per season.

Player experience - with our ADP model we’re looking to heighten the player experience within CAC. This includes embracing innovative technology that will further enable our ability to market our players and track their development online and within our organization. Off-season development - our facility is open year round, hence, we have the ability to offer our players customized year round development opportunities. We’re looking to expand our on-ice programming to include spring sessions, breakfast skates, and position specific development.

Estimated program cost - the estimated cost per player for the U13 is $4000-6000. Unfortunately, this is standard for programs of this caliber in today’s market and CAC is looking at sponsorship and other fundraising mechanisms as means to offset costs for our families.

Program summary:

We’ve thoughtfully designed our Advanced Development Program by prioritizing the player experience. After carefully researching several successful sanctioned and non-sanctioned clubs we’re increasing our value proposition in a highly competitive market. The combination of our own facility, top-level coaching, defined development model, set schedule, value based cost model, and volume of competitive game play, we’re set to deliver a high-quality, differentiated program for the 23/24 season.

Should you have any questions about our new program please feel free to contact our

organization directly via email: hockeyprogram@cac-hockey.com or programconsultant@cac-hockey.com