Hockey player Phoenix Herron to attend Kansas City’s first Total Package Academy

Phoenix Herron skating in 2023. Photo courtesy of Juaquan Herron.

This fall, Phoenix Herron will be one of the first hockey players to attend Kansas City’s Total Package Academy, a 10-month training program for student athletes with campuses across the country. Kansas City’s program will begin operating in September at the AdventHealth Sports Park at Bluhawk in Overland Park. 

At 11 years old, Herron is an accomplished young athlete. He is currently the captain of the Fighting Saints hockey team, which he helped lead to victory during last season’s city and regional championships. While attending Total Package Academy, Herron will train on and off the ice daily while completing his schoolwork for  Lincoln College Preparatory Academy online. 

“I want to get my skating and stickhandling better (at Total Package Academy), so I can be faster and unstoppable,” Herron says. 

Herron asked his father, Juaquan, to register him for hockey at age four after his first viewing of The Mighty Ducks. He admits that he experienced difficulties at first,—during his first year of playing, he was still learning how to skate—which he didn’t fully overcome until the past couple of years. 

At age nine, while attending a week-long hockey camp in Colorado, Herron underwent the first major turning point of his athletic career. At the camp, he discovered that other athletes were faster and more knowledgeable about the game than he was. Herron was disappointed to find that he still had a long way to go, even after five years of playing. During the drive home at the end of the week, his dad offered him some crucial words of encouragement. 

“I told him, ‘this is no one’s fault,’” Juaquan says. “We’ll go home, we’ll work hard, and we’ll do what we need to do to get better. Every year since then, it’s been night and day.”

Photo courtesy of Juaquan Herron.

Since Herron is a first generation hockey player, his father was largely on his own in navigating how his son could improve. After the pair returned to Kansas City, Juaquan began conducting research and organizing a training program to ensure his son gained experience outside of team practices. Herron began a daily regimen of push ups, pull ups, stickhandling exercises, and shadow boxing, and began adhering to a stricter diet. He says the increased rigor has paid off, attributing his continued success to his father’s influence.

“I was like, ‘I’m tired of losing,’ and I was upset,” Herron says. “Then my dad told me, ‘control your mind.’ As soon as I did, I started winning championships and games.” 

For Herron’s parents, their son’s accomplishments come at a considerable cost. Online sources suggest that families typically pay $3,000 to $5,000 per year on youth hockey. Juaquan estimates that he and his wife spend somewhere between $5,000 and $10,000 annually on gear, travel, ice rental, and more. He says that, for himself and other parents in his social circle, cost surpasses every other barrier to entry for seeing one’s child succeed as a hockey player. 

“As a father, I want to push him as far as he can go,” he says. “Many parents will tell you that it’s a longshot for a child to make it pro. But we’re all shooting for the stars, because that’s what your kid wants.” 

Juaquan describes his son as an aggressive player who still knows “how to keep his heart” while on the ice—when one of his teammates, or a player on the opposing team, is injured, Herron is typically the first one to come to their aid. 

Photo courtesy of Juaquan Herron.

Simon Watson is the Director of Ice Operations at AdventHealth Sports Park at Bluhawk, as well as a family friend and longtime mentor of Herron’s. Watson agrees with Juaquan’s description of his son’s playing style, adding that Phoenix is also attuned to the mental aspects of the game as well as the physical ones. 

In the fall, Watson will formally coach Phoenix for the first time at Total Package Academy. The pair will work together most days of the week, from 10 to 11 a.m. on the ice before Phoenix begins his off-ice training for the remainder of the day. Watson says the Total Package model focuses on “supercharging” an athlete’s development by providing them with hundreds more hours of training than what’s available to the average athlete. 

Watson says that, when coaching Phoenix, he plans on taking an integrated approach and helping him improve every aspect of his performance, rather than a few particular skills. 

“He’s a great skater, he’s a great shooter, he’s a great competitor, and he’s a great stick handler,” Watson says. “We want to take everything to the next level, and do everything a little bit faster.” 

If Herron is unable to play hockey professionally in the future, he instead wants to work as a team physician. Wherever his journey takes him, he recognizes he won’t get there without the support of friends and family—this, he says, is the most valuable lesson his hockey career has taught him so far. 

“Always try to build a community of people who care about you,” Herron says. “Don’t try to get stuff from people. Just be friends with them, and get to know them.”