the first major project by costello was to address the lack of success by the canada men's national junior ice hockey team at the iihf world u20 championship. in 1977 canada won a silver medal, and then a bronze medal in 1978, and from 1979 to 1981, canada placed no higher than fifth place. the caha had usually sent the defending memorial cup champion, to save on cost, but often those teams had lost graduating players, and were not as strong of a team which won the championship. the caha wanted to send the best team possible, but also feared that by not sending a team, the iihf would turn to the rival hockey canada instead. costello proposed a "program of excellence" at the 1981 caha annual general meeting st. john's which entailed, canada sending the best eligible junior players from the quebec major junior hockey league, ontario hockey league, western hockey league, to summer evaluation camp, and lend the same players during christmas holidays to create a true team canada. the program also included creating under–17, and under–18 programs to feed into the juniors (under–20), and inviting eligible canadian players from other leagues such as the ushl, or ncaa hockey. teams were concerned about losing their best players in the middle of the season, younger players for regional development tournaments, and potential injuries. costello said that, “they didn’t want to give up their best players over the holidays because that’s when most of the teams would experience their best crowds. we worked hard at trying to convince them because they could show what their league is to the world, not just canada.” costello eventually found key allies in ed chynoweth, and sherwood bassin. the canadian hockey league was also assured of participating in the program of excellence policy committee. once the new program was accepted, it achieved immediate success with canada winning the gold medal at the 1982 world junior ice hockey championships. it also proved to create player loyalty to the program, when they wanted to return to play for the canada men's national ice hockey team.