Neil Doctorow, the founder of PEAC in Toronto, one of the most prestigious schools in Canada was recently in Budapest, he is currently the Director of Development for the Blyth Academy. We had a chance to catch up with him as he talked about how hockey and school can work together for players.
Where did the idea come from to come to Hungary and to look for players?
One of our students was here before as he was on the United States national team that was playing in the Ivan Hlinka Tournament. There is buzz in hockey right now about Hungary so I thought it would be a good time to come, I am also friends with Kristóf Kővágó [former Dunaújváros and Hungarian national team player], who was coaching in Taiwan when I met him and he introduced me to some coaches, everything came together and now here I am.
Which age groups and leagues do you work with?
Some of our schools play in independent leagues but the one that I am looking to bring players for plays in the DTHL, which is the largest minor hockey league in the world and I am looking for players between the ages of 12 and 18. We have junior programs and travel teams that our schools operate and we place players in AAA and AA programs in the GTHL.
For most Hungarians it is too much of a financial burden to send their child to play in North America.
The private school tuition and the hockey fees are not subsidized by the government, regardless if you go to our school, Notre Dame or another private school it will cost about 50,000 Canadian dollars to go and play hockey. There are always other opportunities, I work with RedBull in Salzburg and if I find a kid in Europe that is an amazing player I will recommend them to RedBull since we have a Blyth program there as well. If the student would go there it would cost them nothing. There is also an opportunity for a scholarship, if the parents can prove that they cannot afford the tuition. By and large it is unfortunate that the Canadian government does not support sports like the Hungarian government does the development. I know that here you can direct taxes to it where as in Canada is all a private industry.
This would not be called an “unfortunate” situation since it is working for you, it is just harder for foreigner to get into it, especially ones from countries with a lower standard of living.
There are a few things that our school can do, for example that we send coaches and instructor to rund high level camps in other countries and we bring instructors from these countries to our camps in Canada. We also have spring programs that are less expensive, they can come for a week and train with us. It's during the school year but if they can take a week off they can come independently and train. They would contact us, have on ice and off ice practices for four days, play and practice with one of our teams as well as play a full slate of games. They would also have a chance to see the city, the rinks and everything. It is a lot less expensive and the kids can still get the North American experience. Parents always want to send their kids to camps in the U.S. and Canada but I always say that the camps are good here as well it's that the level of skill at the camp is different. If you want all high level players, they will usually be two hours, parents want a full day but they do not have those, high level players who will do two hours on ice and an hour and a half off ice. In the summer it is almost all off ice since it is more strength and conditioning. The ideal time is really tournament season which is April, May and June.
What are the requirements to study and play in Canada?
We would need to see their transcript, we need to know what coursers they have already taken and what were the grades they received in them and we tell them what they still need to take to complete their high school degree. In the most part off the Ministries of Education work together, particularly in Europe and in North America. We look at the credits that they have taken and place them into the classes accordingly. Our school is extremely flexible, if you come for an entire school you take eight classes every year except for the last year which is just six. We have English instruction from zero to fluent speakers that want to apply to university and would like to take their TOEFL exam. For many kids they would like to move on to a higher level, such as the NCAA in the United States or the OHL. There are a number of junior leagues in Ontario that always have Europeans to play, this is somewhat new. We are an incredible school if they want to move on to play NCAA Div1 or Div3 hockey, since we will move them onto the appropriate junior leagues from our school.
What leagues do players usually move onto from the Blyth Academy?
Since we attract the absolute best players, such as Connor McDavid, and very skilled players, we have a number of players moving to the OHL or they go to the USHL maybe the EJHL and then move on to the NCAA with our girls teams moving on to the NCAA, but of course this is all an important family decision.
For more information about the programs, in Hungary please contact:
Robert Királyfalvi ( robert@kiralyfalvi.hu )
