About Us

Our Philosophy

We are a spring hockey development program that runs from April to late May.

Our model is to develop young hockey players into strong athletes by providing the highest quality of skill development, coaching, and off-ice instruction. At UBC Junior Thunderbirds, we firmly believe better athletes make better hockey players. Players registering for this program must have competed in rep level hockey. Those who are still in initiation must have a strong foundation of skills in relation to their peers and a hunger for hockey knowledge.

What Makes the UBC Junior Thunderbirds Different

At UBC Junior Thunderbirds, we focus our programs around three integrated concepts: skill development, small area games, and systems. As athletes get older, these three training avenues shift toward a more structured game that we view in hockey at the highest level.

  • At the younger ages, students will establish a system, but spend the majority of their time developing their hockey sense and skills.
  • At the older ages, students will learn more advanced systems. They will then apply their skills and hockey sense to that system as the pace of play increases.
  • Each practice will have a clear and concise practice plan that will be easy to follow as the program evolves. This allows young athletes to focus on their development linearly, rather than moving on before inconsistencies are corrected.
  • Our skilled coaches come with years of experience and the ability to translate information in a fun and effective manner, but also posses an attention to detail that will give your child the best opportunity to excel at the game.

UBC Junior Thunderbirds Teams

  • Cost: $1700 including taxes
    • $500 deposit due at time of letter of intent acceptance, remainder due January 31, 2024.

What You Get

  • Each team is comprised of 15 skaters and a goalie.
  • Premium ice times, excellent facilities, involvement from UBC Thunderbirds Hockey alumni and current varsity players.
  • Each team has a head coach and at least one assistant coach.
  • Each team’s goalies will be scheduled for our bi-weekly goalie-only sessions.
  • Consistent practice schedule. Multiple practices per week all at UBC arenas.
  • Weekly dry-land sessions including shooting, stickhandling, agility exercises and/or multi-sport games.
  • Exclusive use of the UBC Stickhandling and Shooting area.
  • Game socks, game jersey, name bar, practice jersey, team apparel, and helmet stickers (game jersey to be returned).
  • Each team receives 16 ice times at UBC, 2 exhibition home games, and 2 tournaments.
  • Additional ice times including tournaments, development sessions, can be booked once the team is formed in addition to the team fee at the team’s discretion.

2024 ID Camps

Teams are not exclusively made up of players from our ID camps, but they are a great tool for your player to showcase their ability to UBC Junior Thunderbirds coaches.

UBC Junior Thunderbirds will be hosting ID camps for the following birth years:

Contact Us

Not a current member of a UBC Junior Thunderbirds team? No ID camps for your age group this season? Please let us know of your interest in our program by emailing Program Director, Mike Nardi at hockey.programs@ubc.ca for future updates on UBC Junior Thunderbird development opportunities.