Over the course of thirty years, Suburban Hockey Schools has done its share of changing and adapting to the hockey community and its needs. Beginning in 1974, and through the 80’s and early 90’s, the program stayed pretty much the same from year to year. For mites, squirts, pee wees and bantams, power skating classes were offered the first week of the program, then hockey skills the second week, culminating with a scrimmage on the final day.

Throughout the 90’s significant changes were made. A goaltending program was designed and implemented by former Canadian Olympian and NHL goaltender Darren Eliot. Adult programs were added, then eventually separate classes for men and women, to serve the needs of the growing numbers of adult players in the game. For a period of years a parent-child class was offered, where adult players could share the ice, and the instruction, with their child.

As players began learning to skate at a younger age, and started playing hockey earlier, a mini mite program was started. As more and more girls began playing the game, a girls program was offered at several locations. In 2002, the Tryout Prep Program hit the ice, prior to early August travel team tryouts, to prepare aspiring players to be on top of their game.

In the summer of 2003, a couple of new programs are being added. First, a Girls High School Program will be offered at Suburban Training Center in Farmington Hills and at the Birmingham Ice Arena.

"In past years, we have only offered one program which included all girls from age 8 through 16," said SHS Director of Programming Lyle Phair. "As we do in all of our classes, we divided the players into groups based on their age and experience level so that everyone was working on skills and concepts to challenge them at their specific level, and that worked fine. But with more and more girls playing, and the emergence of more girls high school teams, we decided to offer two separate classes."

Starting in the summer of 2003, the Girls Program will be for female players age 8-12, while a Girls High School Program will be for players age 13-18. The Girls Program will be offered only at STC in Farmington Hills, the week of July 28-August 31.

Both of the girls’ programs have very similar daily schedules. The first on-ice session consists of age-appropriate power skating technique training to improve balance, agility, power and speed. During a one and a half hour break, the players will have time to get their equipment off, grab a snack, and participate in off-ice training, which includes videotape analysis of skills, chalk talks and written testing.

Back on the ice for the second session, the girls will be schooled in the various hockey skills including stickhandling, passing, shooting, and stick checking. The final class of the week on Friday will consist of a scrimmage game to put their finely-honed skills to the test.

Program Manager Geoff Bennetts has run many of the girls classes over the past several years, with the assistance of various female college players and college coaches.

"Female hockey players are great to work with," said Bennetts. "They have a lot of positive energy and a real thirst for knowledge. It seems they just want to know more and more. They are forever asking questions."

Another question that has been asked several times over the years is "why doesn’t SHS offer programs for defensemen only?"

"Well now we do," replies Phair. "We have been getting that question more and more in recent years. Over the past couple of years, during school breaks we have offered one and two-day Defense Clinics, and people have really enjoyed them, but it is very tough to fit all that needs to be done into that short of a time span."

"There are so many skating skills and concepts that are related specifically to defensemen", says Bennetts. "You could spend months on it, not just a week. Defense is a much harder position to play than forward. Much of the game for defensemen is played without the puck, so they need to have great skating skills and be very sound positionally to be effective. But they also need to have solid puckhandling skills and decision-making skills to be able to get the puck out of their own end and up the ice."

Offered at several locations including the Onyx in Rochester, STC in Farmington Hills, Novi and St. Clair Shores, the Defensemen School has the same daily schedule as the majority of SHS programs with the first 1 ½ hour on-ice session directed at skating skills, which for defensemen will include plenty of transitional skating, pivoting, backward starting and acceleration and backward striding.

Off-ice sessions will include chalk talks specific to defensive positions and situations, video analysis of backward skating technique and a defensive-specific written test. Back on the ice for the second session, the players will work on position-specific puck skills, defensive positioning, and decision-making skills with and without the puck to learn to play the position effectively and confidently.