Elite hockey players inspire as they take the ice with Indigenous youth

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This article was published 17/01/2020 (1554 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Dozens of kids from remote and northern First Nation communities in Manitoba laced up their skates Saturday morning, some for the first time in their lives, to pass pucks with Olympian Brigette Lacquette and former NHL goalie Trevor Kidd.

As snow fell to cover the grounds at Camp Manitou, just west of Winnipeg, young participants from the Winnipeg Aboriginal Sport Achievement Centre were getting a lesson in hockey and persistence from the two experts.

Lacquette, 27, is the first First Nations woman to wear the red and white of the Canadian women’s national team. The defenceman from Mallard — 300 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg — won a silver medal at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, and helped Team Canada to silver at the 2015 and 2016 IIHF World Championships.

Between sharing on-ice skills and talking hockey achievements with the kids from Shamattawa, Lac Brochet, Pauingassi, Duck Bay and Oxford House, Lacquette also spoke frankly about what it means to chase a dream.

“They come from a lot of isolated communities, fly-ins, and the community I grew up in was less than 100 people with one gravel road to get in and one gravel road to get out,” Lacquette said. “I feel like I went through all the challenges that they go through, you know, with bullying and the racism. It’s just making them feel like they can get through it too, because I did.”

“(It’s) forming that bond and connecting with them, and showing them that whatever their passion is… set your mind to it and you can achieve it.”

Kidd spent 12 seasons in the NHL as a goaltender and played for the Calgary Flames, Carolina Hurricanes, Florida Panthers and Toronto Maple Leafs. The 47-year-old from the Oak Bank area also won a silver medal with Team Canada at the 1992 Winter Olympics.

Watching the young skaters move pucks down the ice, fall, and get back up with smiles and genuine excitement was “huge,” Kidd said.

“If they can go back to their communities with one thing that they can use for their motivation, whatever their dreams are, and to see that if you work hard and follow your dreams, there’s tons of opportunity out there,” he said.

Curtis Denechezhe, 17, came to Winnipeg from Lac Brochet Denesuline First Nation with the WASAC crew. While he doesn’t play hockey all that often, he said learning to shoot a puck from two great Indigenous athletes was incredible.

Shayla Richard, 13, of Duck Bay First Nation echoed that sentiment and described Lacquette as an inspiration and role model.

“It was really fun and I’d like to come back next year,” she said.

“What we’re trying to do in our programs is develop leaders and show them the way to act and be mentors for them,” said Trevor Laforte, executive director of WASAC, which provides recreation opportunities to Indigenous youth in Winnipeg and northern Manitoba.

“What we try to do is put them in positions where they see somebody who has succeeded at the highest levels of their profession. They have a lot of experience, Trevor and Brigette, and passing that along to kids who look up to them is beneficial in many ways.”

The ice session was hosted by True North Sports and Entertainment in conjunction with its Winnipeg Jets WASAC Night and Manitoba Moose Follow Your Dreams Game.

The cohort of youngsters also took in the Winnipeg Jets game against the Tampa Bay Lightning Friday night at Bell MTS Centre. The game was dedicated to WASAC and began with Strong Warrior Girls Anishinaabe Singers — students from Riverbend School’s Ojibwa immersion program — performing the Canadian national anthem in Ojibwa.

danielle.dasilva@freepress.mb.ca