The amount of home grown players in the Basingstoke Bison is set to increase, thanks to a brand new ice hockey academy to be set-up by the club for teenagers this autumn.

This fresh initiative is looked at as a major step forward for ice hockey in Basingstoke.

It is hoped it will help to build a solid infrastructure throughout the club, which will bring players right through the system from the under-10 to the senior Bison.

The Basingstoke Bison Elite Ice Hockey Academy as it will be called will start this autumn and be run by a newly appointed Academy Director, who will also oversee all the junior development at the club.

As well as getting top training alongside the Bison, the players aged 16 to19, will also get an educational qualification from the Basingstoke College of Technology, which will form the foundation to study a degree course.

Bison head coach Ryan Aldridge is 100 per cent behind this innovative idea and said: "It has to be a great plus for the club. It will not get results overnight, but in two or three years you start to see the fruits of the seeds being sown today.

"We need to develop more players in Basingstoke, that is something that is seriously lacking and this will go a long way to solving that problem."

"I would certainly have jumped at the chance of doing something like this when I was a teenager."

The Academy is open to any players 16 to19 and those who wish to apply can do so by contacting the Basingstoke Bison office on (01256) 355827