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First in a five-part series.

TORONTO — The Grade 9 English class is deep into a lesson on Greek mythology when the door opens and a stocky, bald man with wire-frame glasses pops his head in.

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Guy Girouard, who has been giving a tour of the campus, quickly apologizes for the interruption. But before he closes the door, he spots a student and delivers an important message.

“Your skates are sharpened. You can pick them up after class.”

Welcome to the Canadian International Hockey Academy, where “School. Hockey. Life.” is the motto — although not necessarily in that order.

Located 40 kilometres east of downtown Ottawa in the charming town of Rockland, the academy opened its doors four years ago with Gatorade and CCM as sponsors and the full blessing of Hockey Canada. It’s a prep school, but the kind where Calgary Flames head coach Bob Hartley is on the faculty as a senior hockey adviser and where the 90 students, who are often hand-picked by the school’s scouts, have little to no body fat and walk to class with books in one hand and a post-workout protein shake in the other.