Every year from Grade 8 through 12, graduating Britannia Secondary School student Raphael Jugovic hit the ice with the Britannia Hockey Academy. “Throughout the past five years of my life, it’s meant the world to me,” he said outside the rink where he spent his high school years forging bonds with his teammates. Run through the school’s physical education department, the academy operated out of the rink at Britannia Community Centre and was open to boys and girls across all grade levels. For just $160 per month during the semester, the players got four hours of ice time and coaching per week, along with credit for a PE class. “I felt like I had another family here at school in the academy,” Jugovic told CTV News. “Having all of my teammates, they felt like brothers and sisters to me.” Going forward, Britannia students will need to make those connections and create that sense of belonging away from the rink—because the Vancouver School Board is axing the program. “For the 2026-27 school year, only a small number of students, a total of 11 students, expressed interest in the hockey academy,” the VSB said in a statement. “Based on that low enrolment, the academy cannot be delivered in a way that is educationally sound and operationally viable.” Parents of students hoping to return to the academy for the next academic year don’t believe that’s a good reason to suspend the program. “The program has been run with as few as seven students. So, we’re a little bit unclear as to the exact reasons,” said Jason Del Vicario, whose son played in the academy for the past two seasons. “And we’ve received very little formal feedback from the Vancouver School Board or trustees to this point.” Naomi Stinson’s son has been playing with BHA for three years. As he enters his final two years of high school, she says the loss of the program will be devastating for him. Stinson told CTV News that registration closed in February, but parents were only made aware of the low enrollment earlier this month. She would like the VSB to give the players and their parents time to recruit more student athletes. “We’re simply asking for a stay of execution. Just one year to give us the chance that we were denied initially to act on behalf of the academy, to raise awareness and help boost enrollment to the point where they’re turning people away,” Stinson said. Now that he’s graduated, Jugovic plans to find a new league so he can keep playing hockey. But he also wants to volunteer to make sure that the next generation of Britannia students has the same opportunities he did. “I still want there to be an academy. Through the years, I always wanted to give back in some way, either to coach or to get back here any way possible. I just want to help,” he said. Unless the VSB reverses course, he won’t be able to do that with hockey at Britannia.
