Collaboration focused on creating enhanced hockey and education opportunities for elite student-athletes

Purcell Collegiate School (PCS) and Kootenay Hockey Academy (KHA) are pleased to announce an exciting new partnership strategically designed to provide extended and enhanced programming to student-athletes playing for KHA and attending PCS.

The PCS-KHA collaboration will see Purcell Collegiate become KHA’s primary education provider with PCS incorporating a customized school schedule to accommodate KHA’s on-ice portion programming. PCS will recruit student-athletes from outside the Kimberley-Cranbrook area to play for the BCHL Cranbrook Bucks-affiliated academy while attending PCS for school and living in PCS’s boarding facility.

KHA student-athletes from will benefit from a customized education program at PCS that enables a strategically-integrated and well-balanced experience on the ice, in the classroom, and within the community.

Some key elements of this approach include:

– Education innovation: PCS uses a blended-linear timetable that includes both in-class and online learning, enabling players to benefit from in-person instruction when they are at school while having access to online coursework when they are travelling for hockey.

– Hockey excellence: owned and operated by the Cranbrook Bucks of the BCHL, KHA’s programming includes over 180 hours of on-ice practices during the school day as well as off-ice training and development bolstered by dedicated strength, skills, and goalie coaches in support of its participation in the highly-scouted Junior Prospects Hockey League (JPHL).

– Community engagement: the partnership emphasizes and enables community involvement with a particular focus on volunteerism and will ensure opportunities are afforded to players to participate in Purcell Collegiate’s Uprep@PCS suite of activities, events, trips, and clubs, which are designed to prepare student-athletes for post-secondary education and beyond.

“Kootenay Hockey Academy is very excited about our partnership with Purcell Collegiate,“ said Nathan Lieuwen, President of the Bucks and the Academy. “Teaming up with Purcell will increase the opportunity both for local athletes and for international athletes looking for top-level hockey development and high-level education.”

Duncan MacLeod, PCS Head of School, echoes Lieuwen’s excitement and enthusiasm: “Our partnership with KHA builds on the groundwork already completed to launch our female hockey program. We’re looking forward to working with Nathan and his team to make Kimberley-Cranbrook an international destination for academy hockey with the goal being programming that produces well-rounded athletes prepared to move forward in hockey, in school, and in life.”

Follow @kha_jphl and @purcellcollegiate for updates as the partnership moves forward with recruitment for the 2025-26 school year and hockey season.

Lead image:  Pictured are Duncan MacLeod, Purcell Collegiate Head of School (left) and Nathan Lieuwen, Cranbrook Bucks/KHA President (right). Photo by Jason Caven

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