Minnesota's first-ever online high school set up to provide intensive hockey training has produced a girls' team that is charging toward next week's state tournament.
Regarded as "a new animal walking among the herd" by one high school coach, Achiever Academy is the top seed in Section 4 heading into Tuesday night's Class 1A semifinal game. The private school offers students, including those on a boys' team also playing well this season, up to three hours of hockey training in the morning and an online academic curriculum in the afternoon.
That unusual approach is raising questions in hockey circles about Achiever's legitimacy as a high school program even as its new owners, who took over the struggling business in January, scramble to provide answers.
Greg Gartner, a Stillwater-based business owner and youth hockey coach, and Tom Forsythe purchased the private high school in January. Achiever Academy and its originating program, Northern Educate, faced "imminent closure" otherwise, Forsythe said.
Gartner, who has a son at Northern Educate, said he believes in an alternative education model where kids are driven by a love of hockey, but he is aiming for a better balance of the school's athletics and academics.
Northern Educate opened in 2011, providing a whopping 480 hours of ice time for players during the school year. Launched a year later, Achiever Academy gave the grade-7-through-12 students a high school team to call their own.
Questions quickly ensued as Achiever began competing, ranging from the validity of the academic curriculum to fears of burnout for young athletes to complying with the Minnesota State High School League's eligibility rules.
"There is a lot of dissension among some coaches," said Tim Morris, executive director of the Minnesota Girls Hockey Coaches Association. "The concern is, how does this fit in with the Minnesota State High School League and community-based programs?"