Ex-Hockey Player To Open Training Facility

After years of playing with the Knoxville Ice Bears, Bryan Hince is once again looking to give back to the city's hockey community.

Hince's Pro Vision Hockey Academy, a training facility geared toward helping improve the performance of youth in the area, will have its official opening on Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. It will be located in West Knoxville, near Farragut and Lenoir City.

Developing young people's skills

One of the academy's major goals will be to develop the specific hockey skills of young athletes, as Hince sees that as the trend that the game is moving toward.

"We're more of a skills side of things," Hince said. "That's the way everything is going now, just more on the skills side of things."

The Pro Vision Hockey Academy will operate year-round and will combine "on-ice training sessions with state-of-the-art interactive off-ice equipment and a dedicated turf and conditioning regimen," according to the facility's website.

Originally from Canada, Hince initially conceived the idea for his academy after playing college hockey at SUNY Plattsburgh in New York and for multiple semi-professional clubs, including the Ice Bears.

For the love of Knoxville

A goalie for the Ice Bears for six seasons (2010-16), Hince grew an attachment to Knoxville, taking a liking to its small-town feel mixed with the amenities of a big city. He also eventually began to toy with the idea of starting a training facility to cater to the city's hockey community.

"I started giving lessons back when I played with the Ice Bears and saw that there could be some potential here for a standalone building," the 32-year-old Hince said.

Part of his mission with the Pro Vision Hockey Academy includes the consistent development of his athletes' hockey performance, complete with a goal-oriented basis for those in his program.

"I want kids to move on," Hince said. "It's the same with schooling. You spend six hours in school ... you're constantly working on your skills here. You don't want to do anything in life that you don't have a goal for."

Hince hopes the academy's year-round operation will increase the chances of athletes staying with the facility's training, and he also wants to aid those in his program in obtaining opportunities to further their hockey careers in college and beyond.

"It's all year-round, so us providing that core to the community is good for the retention ... We do have a few kids that are in the program right now that are playing in the NCAA," Hince said. "Just kids having more options other that your intellectual scholarships."

Predators get some credit

Hince attributes the recent success of the Nashville Predators to growing interest in hockey around the area and getting more kids involved in his academy. The Predators made a run at the Stanley Cup Finals during the 2016-2017 season, helping to fuel fandom for the team, and thus the sport itself, around East Tennessee.

That growth in interest in hockey is something that the staff at Pro Vision Hockey Academy hopes continues through the opening of their facility, just as Hince's love for the game has remained throughout his career.

"We're trying to grow hockey here, basically ... We're just trying to provide a little bit more for (kids in the area) to get a little better and help them develop," Clint Burkhalter, the Pro Vision Hockey Academy's Facility Manager, said.

Read More of Today's AB Headlines

Subscribe to Our Daily E-Newsletter