Former Prairie Hockey Academy student-athlete Hunter Weber has graduated from the Edwards School of Business with a major in Accounting.
Four years ago, the Saskatoon, SK defenseman was forced with making a difficult decision between playing Junior A hockey with the Battleford North Stars of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League (SJHL) or pursuing a higher education.
Weber ultimately chose to attend the Edwards School of Business, a college within the University of Saskatchewan, while playing Junior B hockey with the Saskatoon Quakers.
That season he would find success both on and off the ice as the Quakers won the Prairie Junior Hockey League (PJHL) Championship while Weber was awarded with the Edwards School of Business Dean’s Honour Role List. That year he would also move to Rocanville, SK for an internship at Nutrien’s Rocanville Potash Mine in the procurement department, the largest operating potash mine in the world.
In 2022/23 the Quakers would come one win short of defending their title, losing game seven of the PJHL championship to the Pilot Butte Storm. But Weber would again be awarded with the Edwards School of Business Dean’s Honour Role List and moved to Calgary, AB for an internship at Gibson Energy in the operations management department, a midstream oil and gas company with operations in Alberta, Texas, and Saskatchewan.
The following year would be Weber’s last of junior hockey and he made it a good one as he won his second PJHL Championship in three seasons with the Quakers. Off the ice, Weber took an internship at Deloitte as a staff accountant, the largest accounting firm in the world. With Deloitte he performed audits of financial statements on clients in the banking, non-profit, and hotel industries.
While Weber no longer played hockey this season, he still managed multiple commitments, including a teaching assistant for two upper-year commerce classes and working on a pea protein research project with the family farm.
To top all of that off, he graduated thus month and recently accepted a full-time position at Nutrien’s corporate office in a Finance Rotational Program that had over 100 applicants and 4 rounds of interviews with Nutrien’s executive leadership team.
“Moving away to the Prairie dorms at a young age (15) taught me invaluable independence skills that gave me the confidence to move away to Rocanville and Calgary for four-month internships where I gained valuable business experience leading to my end job at Nutrien,” saidWeber.
Weber spent two seasons with Prairie including the 2018/19 season, the inaugural Canadian Sport School Hockey League (CSSHL) season for the Caronport, SK based program. A 2018 third round SJHL Draft pick by the North Starts, Weber would tally 5 points in 20 games with Prairie that season.
While the majority of CSSHL student-athletes graduate to the Junior A or Major Junior ranks, Weber’s decision to put academics first is not an uncommon one. With the CSSHL striving “to be National Leaders in Education-Based Hockey,” Weber is one of the many student-athletes who learn valuable life lessons that help them further their education.
“Prairie’s core values of developing life champions and leaders were essential to my growth and development as a person, and I do not believe I would be the person I am today without Prairie. Prairie has set me up for success in life, the workplace, and post-secondary education,” remarked Weber.
“In the PJHL, balancing a 40-game regular season and 20-game playoff season schedule with five university classes was extremely difficult,” added Weber. “I attribute much of my success as a student-athlete to my time at Prairie. Prairie taught me the fundamental values of becoming a student-athlete, where I developed the skills to manage academics and hockey commitments. From doing homework on the bus to dedicated time in hotels, the skills I was taught during my two years at Prairie were essential to my success in managing a full-time university schedule with roughly 60 hockey games.”
Along with the life lessons, the academic preparation, and the on-ice development, Weber noted that some of his best friends are friends that he has from his time at Prairie over seven years ago, re-iterating the core values Prairie fosters.
