Southdale hockey fans have won the chance to cheer and play for “Broncos 2.0,” the revival of a high school team that was disbanded last year due to coaching challenges and players’ aggressive outbursts.
Grade 11 student Colton Clelland-Hall and his teammates at J.H. Bruns Collegiate will lace up their skates for their first game of the season — a reality that has brought the defender “relief and happiness” — on Thursday.
“There’s a lot of kids who love hockey and want to play, and this is the best, and sometimes, the only place for them to play,” he said.
The Manitoba High Schools Athletic Association runs leagues that allow teens to compete, as well as work part-time jobs, socialize and stay on top of homework, he said.
They are also far more affordable for families than other competitive leagues.
That’s why players and their families described their shock in June when senior administration announced it had axed a longtime hockey program.
Geoff Cusson, the renewed program’s parent liaison, rallied students, caregivers and community members to find a solution over the summer break.
Cusson said he was disappointed for his son and the rest of the boys, given how proud they’d been to wear Broncos jerseys and play for fans who packed the stands at Southdale Community Centre.
The rink is next door to the school, and home games are often well-attended.
“I wanted the kids to feel supported by their school and I wanted them to know that if they fight for something they believe in, they can achieve it,” Cusson said. “But also, that there’s a way to do it properly.”
Trustees informed him that hockey could resume only if there was a staff member willing to supervise, a qualified coaching team and a revised code of conduct.
Multiple sources said school leaders’ concerns about the prevalence of infighting and on-ice confrontations contributed to the end-of-year decision.
“It was a sour ending to the school year,” said Kristjan Hansen, a Grade 12 student who said he’s tried out for the team every fall he’s been eligible because of how much fun it is to play alongside classmates.
Hansen and Clelland-Hall acknowledged there were behaviour issues last year, but both said the team brings people together.
Hansen said high school hockey has made him more organized because he has to manage his time.
Clelland-Hall said that being on the Broncos has taught him how to work with others he wouldn’t normally choose to spend time with off the ice.
“You have to embrace everybody,” he said. “That’s what it takes to win.”
He suggested that critics of hockey culture make him want to “prove them wrong” and be extra respectful to his opponents and officials.
At the same time, heated on-ice exchanges are part of the game, he said.
Cusson said parents and players worked to re-establish a positive locker-room culture.
“Every extracurricular program goes up and down,” he said. “After a while, a program can start to slip. We were actively working on bringing (ours) back.”
He called “Broncos 2.0” a fresh start, and said Larry Woo, a seasoned coach who runs Laker Hockey Academy at Southdale, is responsible.
He and Woo took an 11th-hour proposal to trustees in late August. They won over the board with a pitch that would see Woo volunteer with hockey operations and mentor a community-based coach.
J.H. Bruns’ new principal, Thomas Locke, endorsed the plan. The 2025-2026 administrative team also secured multiple teacher supervisors.
“Tryouts and exhibition went really well; our student-athletes are quickly coming together as a team and are representing the school with pride,” Locke said in an email Wednesday.
Woo found an eager trainer, also a current teacher-candidate at the University of Manitoba, who learned after he’d committed to the coaching role that he’d be doing his practicum at J.H. Bruns.
Tyler Brown, a Bisons hockey alum, has seen first-hand how outbursts happen on the ice. The aspiring phys-ed and biology teacher said he also knows, from personal experience, just how positive of an influence hockey can be on a teenage boy.
“I’m so happy to be a part of (Broncos 2.0) and for these guys, who are getting a chance to play hockey again — a game that they love — and to be a part of our community,” the coach said.
Brown said the sport has helped him build lifelong friends, adding he plans to teach students, both in class and the dressing room, how to be good role models for their siblings and peers.
Coach TylerBrown said it’ll be key to make clear the consequences of inappropriate behaviour, including how such actions affect others, before the puck drops.
