What’s Lost When a High School Hockey Program Ends?

Parents, students and at least one Vancouver School Board trustee say pausing Britannia Secondary School’s Hockey Academy in September could be a step toward the school’s closure.

The hockey academy is a district-wide, low-barrier hockey program. But the school district has said it won’t operate in the next school year.

Parents, students and trustee Suzie Mah said that will kill the program and threaten the school’s future.

Britannia was on a potential closure list in 2016. The school, with room for more than 1,000 students, had just 589 students in the 2024-25 school year.

But the inner-city school on Vancouver’s east side is part of a community centre complex that provides family supports and low-cost public access to amenities like the ice arena, rink, pool, gym and library.

And it has had a strong relationship with the urban Indigenous community in Vancouver, with almost one-third of students Indigenous.

Several of the students enrolled in the Britannia Hockey Academy this year are Indigenous. As is coach Jamie Smith, parents Jason Del Vicario and Naomi Stinton told The Tyee.

Mah, a COPE school trustee, said the hockey program could have been saved.

“It doesn’t have to be this way,” she said. “A district program can draw from different schools, and if the school board marketed it, if there was a push to get more enrolment, it would survive.”

Despite being past the February enrolment deadline for the hockey academy’s 2026-27 year, in late May rumours started flying among the students that the program would be cancelled.

“I was told by a teammate that the program was shutting down,” said hockey academy student Viktor Del Vicario, who is going into Grade 10 this fall.

Del Vicario, who has been in the academy for two years, heard a few days later that their coach and teacher, Jamie Smith, was also leaving the school.

Viktor told his father. But no one reached out to the parents officially before it was announced at the Britannia Secondary Parent Advisory Council meeting on June 3, Jason said.

“The principal was there,” he said. “The matter came up on the agenda and she looked at Viktor and said, ‘Yeah, I’m really sorry but the program’s being suspended for a year.’’’

Asked why, Jason Del Vicario says the principal blamed the program’s low enrolment and a cut from three physical education teachers at Britannia to two next year based on enrolment.

The teacher being assigned to another school was the team’s coach.

The Vancouver Secondary Teachers’ Association told The Tyee four Britannia Secondary teachers have been declared surplus and will be transferred for the next school year. There are about 44 teachers on staff according to the school’s website.

There are 11 students enrolled in the Britannia Hockey Academy for next school year. The district said two or three students are having timetable issues that would prevent their full participation.

But the parents and students The Tyee spoke to say scheduling issues are not uncommon at the academy, which has operated for nearly 20 years.

During the June 17 school board meeting, the district said there is no minimum enrolment number required for the program. That’s very unusual, says trustee Mah.

“I asked specifically, ‘What is the viable number?’ And nobody would answer that for me,” said Mah.

In an email to The Tyee, a district spokesperson said in previous years the program has enrolled “around 20 students.” But Jason Del Vicario says when Jamie Smith became coach in 2017, there were only seven students enrolled.

Mah brought a last-minute motion to overturn the decision to pause the program to the board’s June 17 meeting.

Pausing the hockey academy was a school district staff decision. According to the district’s Administrative Procedure 220 district choice programs like the Britannia Hockey Academy can only be recommended for discontinuation by the school board.

But because the program has been “paused,” the board said the policy didn’t apply.

Despite support from ABC trustee Preeti Faridkot and Independent trustee Christopher Richardson, Mah’s motion was defeated by Green trustees Janet Fraser and Lois Chan-Pedley, ABC trustee Alfred Chien and Independent trustee Victoria Jung. OneCity trustee Jennifer Reddy and ABC trustee Josh Zhang were absent.

Inside the hockey academy

Hockey isn’t cheap. But the Britannia Hockey Academy, one of 18 mini-school programs in Vancouver’s public secondary schools, is a discounted hockey option for the city’s secondary students.

While students are charged $800 for the five months of hockey four times a week, that fee is discounted or covered completely for kids who can’t afford it.

Ice time is covered by school-hour access to the rink just steps from the high school. The academy has a school bus to transport students to and from games at other arenas.

While other Vancouver schools have extra-curricular hockey teams, Britannia is the only public school where playing hockey is part of the school day for students in the academy.

“The whole concept behind this academy was to make hockey as inclusive as possible, as low-barrier as possible,” said Stinton, whose son Jack Farrell, going into Grade 11, has been in the academy for three years.

No school district funding is used for the program, Stinton says. Other than teacher/coach Smith, the other coaches are parent volunteers.

“All the funds are from sponsorships, bursaries, donations and the like,” said Stinton, adding the academy partners with a local sporting goods store for discounted equipment.

For some kids, the program has bought their gear. When Farrell lost all of his hockey gear in a house fire, the coaches bought him new equipment.

Hockey Academy “was the only reason I kept coming to school” after the fire, said Farrell. “Because now I had the gear and I was set up for that class.”

Altogether Britannia Hockey Academy is probably a quarter of the cost of playing “club” hockey in Vancouver, said Jason Del Vicario.

The Tyee requested an interview with Vancouver School Board chair Victoria Jung or associate superintendent Pedro da Silva. Neither were made available.

Instead a district spokesperson sent The Tyee an emailed statement noting families received a letter informing them of the academy’s pause on June 3, the same day the Parent Advisory Council meeting was held.

“Based on the low enrolment, the class cannot be delivered in a way that is educationally sound and operationally viable for next year. This does not mean the class is removed,” the statement read.

The district spokesperson maintained the school will monitor interest in the academy and will include information about it during family information night for new students and course selection time next January.

But none of the people The Tyee spoke to believe the academy can come back after a year off the ice. Especially if Smith is no longer around to coach.

“The five other coaches that are there, all volunteer, they’re going to go volunteer somewhere else,” said Jason Del Vicario. “How do you recruit to a program that might happen, given the history of it being suspended?”

Britannia’s challenges

Britannia Secondary School’s low enrolment has raised questions about its future.

Unlike Britannia Elementary, which has been seismically upgraded, the high school is considered a “future priority” with no current plans to earthquake-proof the building.

A renewal project that would have renovated or replaced the existing community centre complex was shelved by Vancouver city council in 2023, citing lack of funds. While the project was recently making news again, estimates for completion are currently post-2030.

Britannia Secondary is home to several academic enrichment and alternative school programs: the hockey academy, the international baccalaureate program, the Venture program, Outreach and Streetfront.

It’s those choice programs that attract students from outside the Britannia catchment area to the school.

The hockey academy is the reason Viktor Del Vicario chose Britannia Secondary. Although he is also part of the Venture program, he told The Tyee he isn’t sure if he will stay at Britannia if the academy doesn’t return.

“It’s a big factor in the reason for going there,” he said.

During the June 17 school board meeting, associate superintendent da Silva said if new students were interested in the program in September, the district and school may reconsider the pause.

If the coach/teacher position re-opens, Smith would have the right to return under the collective agreement.

With that in mind, the Britannia hockey academy families are hoping to find more potential academy students over the summer.