Enter Breakaway Academy. A new private school lead by former Gopher Hockey players Dave Snuggerud and Andy Brink. Dave played his youth and high school hockey in Hopkins and Andy grew up and played his hockey in Bemidji. Dave went on to play for the 1988 US Olympic Hockey team and a career in the NHL and Andy, a two sport star in both hockey and golf, went on to a short career as professional golfer. After his hockey career was over, Dave went on to teach school and coach hockey and train kids in the off season.
Dave and Andy met when Andy and his wife Holly built a house in Dave’s neighborhood. At the time, both were training players. Having the same philosophy about the game and life, Andy and Dave formed Breakaway Hockey. Breakaway has trained and continues to train local athletes in-season and off from ages 7-18 years old. Breakaway has been successful because Dave and Andy have always focused on hockey training being fun. They’ve paid specific attention to individual skills and have encouraged their families/kids to play other sports, to become athletes not hockey players. Andy said, “we have always thought it was important to have a long term approach with our kids, after all it’s not a race to become the best 11 year old hockey player.”
The school will offer a traditional education model offering four core classes - Math, Language Arts, Science and Social Studies that will be instructed by experienced certified teachers. A typical day will look like this (third through fifth grade:
7:30-8:00am – Welcome
8:00-9:00am – Math
9:00-10:00am – Language Arts
10:00-10:15am – Nutrition Break
10:15-11:15am – Social Studies/Tech.
11:15-12:00pm – Science
12:00-12:30pm – Training Table (Lunch)
12:45-3:00pm – Hockey Training
The education model appears to be “traditional” but after further review, it is very progressive. First of all, the school will be based in the Chaska Community Center which houses every walk of life throughout the day: seniors, toddlers, people working out, and yes a hockey rink. The students will be required to interact with these people as part of their curriculum. Besides some of the basics of education, Dave wants to challenge their students to understand the “why” versus the “how much”. Snuggerud said, “every student who leaves our school after eighth grade will be prepared academically for any school in the country.”