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WINNIPEG — His skating is slick but it wasn’t always that way for Ed Saly.

“On my first day of hockey, I wasn’t that good,” said the grade one student. “I fall, I get up, I fall.”

Seven months later, he has the skills of a budding superstar.

Ed is one of sixty kids who steps onto the ice every Wednesday with the Dufferin Hockey Academy, an inner-city program run by Dufferin School that teaches everything there is to know about the sport.

“It brings their self-esteem up,” said Rick Boucher, the academy’s program director. “It brings their academic levels up.”

And it’s completely free. The city provides the rink, generous donors the equipment and volunteers their time.

“There are so many community members within that one dressing room, helping the kids that it really pulls us together,” said Dufferin school principal Wayne Wyke.

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Eighty-five per cent of students who attend the academy have never played hockey before.

“Most of our students did not know how to skate,” said Boucher. “Some of them are immigrants that have never been on the ice before.”

The goal is to one day expand the program to include more schools and eventually create an inner-city league. The only thing slowing the academy down though is a lack of equipment.

“We had at the time sixty skates so sixty kids get to go on the ice,” said Wyke. “We have over 330 children who attend Dufferin. We would like to see them have the opportunity to be on the ice and be able to learn the skills.”

Just like Ed.

“It’s so fun when you skate,” said Ed. “The more you practice, the better you get.”