The Jasper hockey camp celebrated its 15th year with two weeks of camps at the Jasper Activity Centre. 

Owner of the camp Graham Parsons said the camp has a great history, and continues to foster great talent. 

The camp got its start in 1995, when four German athletes made the trip to Canada, only to discover the hockey camp they had hoped to attend had been cancelled. Parsons, who was running a similar camp in Sylvan Lake, was contacted and the four players were fit into the camp there. 

After that year, it was decided there was a need for a similar experience in Jasper, and the week-long skill camp was born. 

Since then the camp has grown to a two week long vacation for kids of all ages and skill levels. It has attracted international students and locals to build their hockey skills through the summer. 

“As it grew we had local participation,” Parsons said. 

The camp is run together with the Sylvan Lake camp. Parsons said the students can get a beach vacation and a mountain vacation in one summer if they attend both.

The camp isn’t just enjoyed by the players. Many hockey pros come to lend a hand coaching for a week or two, and Parsons himself loves the work. 

“When I come to Jasper it’s a working holiday,” he said. “I’ve always enjoyed it. It’s one of the things you look forward to because it’s a change.”

With 15 years under its belt, the camp has attracted many fans. Former players who passed through the camp at a younger age frequently stop in to say hi, and many parents of those former campers attend the practices to see how the camp has grown. 

Players are taught the basic fundamentals of hockey. Skills that are worked on include basics like passing and skating. Each year the lesson plan changes a bit, but the idea is kept the same. 

A few players have ended up playing higher level hockey, but Parsons says they usually coach younger kids, who have a way to go before they would be able to hit the ice in an NHL game. 

“There are good numbers who have gone through and played junior hockey or college hockey,” he said. One example is Jasper’s Rylan Burns, who received a university scholarship for hockey.

For the past four years the camp has welcomed Okotoks Oilers coach Gary VanHereweghe to the coaching staff. He is attending again for the 2010 season. Several pro players have stopped in to coach for the week, including NHL player Mike Mole of the New York Islanders. 

Parsons has been organizing the camp for the past 26 years, first in Sylvan Lake, and then in Jasper as well. He would like to see the camp, and his yearly vacation, continue. 

“We’re hoping we’ll have another 15 years,” he said. “We want to continue to grow.”

Whether that growth means adding another week or two on is unclear. This year the camp welcomed 180 kids, which is about 90 per cent capacity. 

“In the end it’s a real fun way to spend a summer,” Parsons said. 

The success of the camp has been helped by the staff at the Jasper Activity Centre, Parsons said. 

“The activity centre people have just been wonderful over the years,” he said, going on to thank them for their many contributions to the camp. 

With the recent renovations, not much to do with the hockey camp has been disrupted, but Parsons looks forward to the new improved building. “It’s just progress.