Who was your inspiration when you were growing up?

 

My inspiration is my mother for sure.  I grew up in an alcoholic home and my mom was a single mother.  She always taught me there is always a way.  She always worked and she showed me the value of hard work.  I have always taken that and kept that in my heart.  I am not alone.  I have always been able to support myself and find work, even if I have to drive an hour.  I always managed to find my way. 

  
What issues did you deal with as a young person that you see young people dealing with today? 

 

Addiction, I grew up in an alcoholic environment at home.  It was difficult but I managed to graduate with an advanced high school diploma by the time I was 17.  My main motivation was this diploma is going to get me somewhere, it’s going to get me away from my current environment, so that was my main motivation for getting it done.  My mom also motivated me, she wouldn’t have it any other way.  In my mind there was no quitting school or dropping out or anything like that, she instilled in me that I had to finish school. 

I played soccer, basketball, and track in school growing up.  For me one of the barriers was not knowing what was out there even though I grew up in Edmonton, in large urban center I still wasn’t aware of the opportunities that were out there for me.  I was a decent athlete, I didn’t grow up in a rich home.  There wasn’t a lot of money for sports camps and even proper sports equipment.  I remember playing soccer one year in high school with football cleats because my mom went out and decided to buy them because they were cheap and I’m pretty sure they were even used.  She didn’t realize they weren’t soccer cleats, so I had to play soccer in football cleats for a season.For today’s youth it hasn’t really changed that much from 25 years ago when I was in High School.  I think it has gotten a bit better in regards to awareness. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What is your vision for your community? 

 

My vision for my community and my motivation for driving 3 hours to work and back every day is to provide opportunities for our youth.  The only developed sport that we have in our community is hockey and it’s pretty decently run.  They are in the local league and they play games off the reserve.  The thing is that not every youth in our community likes hockey, and not every youth can afford hockey.  We have a big reserve and we have a lot of amenities on our reserve that are totally underutilized.  I would love to see an organized sports foundation on our reserve that addresses all the needs of all of our youth in regards to sports and wellness and physical activity.  We have more than enough youth to create all sorts of sports leagues for soccer, basketball, softball, etc.  We have enough youth to enter into the local football league but we don’t have enough individuals willing to take that time.  I would like to see starting from the ground up building a sports organization that really teaches our community members the value of volunteering, the value of giving back to your community, and the value of investing in our young people.  Taking the time for our youth, since a lot of our youth are neglected in that way.  In my school I coach a lot of the sports and we have parents that would rather sit outside and wait instead of come in and watch the last 10 minutes of a game.  There just isn’t enough importance placed on supporting our youth and being there for our youth.  We have to reteach our community to do that.  At one time we had a thriving community with many different sports back 25 or 30 years ago we had thriving sports in this community and I don’t know where that has gone.

What role should our traditional culture have in the lives of our First Nations youth both in a rural and urban setting? 

 

First of all identity is very important, self-esteem and self-identity.  We have to know where we come from to know where we want to go in life.  I think it’s very important to represent ourselves as first nations people when we go out there and to do that with pride.  I have taken teams to non-native communities, and especially from Hobbema the media just loves us out here and they are always ready to portray us in a negative manner.  I’ve always tried to prepare my athletes for some of the possible things that they are going to encounter off the reserve. We have gone to gymnasiums and soon as we walk in you can hear a pin drop because everyone is like, “oh my god, it’s a bunch of Indians, a bunch of trouble makers.” I always let my athletes know, “As a Native person you have to work twice as hard to prove yourself out in society.  You have to prove that you belong.  The Majority of time, society is not going to accept you. You have to prove themselves and prove that you belong amongst everyone else.  Prove you have the skills and ability to be out there.  Sometimes it’s difficult.  We have encountered racism. I went to a badminton tournament in Red Deer and some boys went up to two of our boys and asked them if they wanted to fight just because they were Native.  You have to prepare them because they will not want to go the next time or they will go with angry.  You have to prepare them and teach them, they are bigger than that, and they are above that racism.  They are athletes like any other athlete at that tournament and they deserve to be there regardless of what anyone else thinks.  

What advice would you give to young athletes and potential leaders in the communities? 

 

You can do anything.  When you put your mind to something, you can achieve that goal.  It may take a lot of hard work, sacrifice, and you may have to face things that you don’t like in regards to racism and stereotypes but in the end it’s worth it.  When you get to that goal and achieving that goals, doing what you love, enjoy all of those steps getting there are worth it.  You should never give up because if you give up your stuck and not moving forward.  Everyone deserves to be happy and enjoy what you are doing.  You have to find to find that happiness and get to the point at where you love what you are doing.  Have pride in what you are doing.  I always tell my athletes, “

When we go out to off reserve games.  You have to please remember to represent our school with pride, dignity and respect.”  When people find out a team is coming from Hobbema they have this image in our mind of gang members or troubled kids, so we have to rise above those stereotypes and take it with dignity.  

If you had one message to send to the Aboriginal community in North America, what would it be? 

 

If you stop doing what you want to do and decide that it is too hard, or the road is too difficult, who is going to take your place.  We all have to understand that each and every one of us are valuable, unique and have gifts and abilities we need to share with the world.  If I stop what I am doing now because it is too difficult I have to ask myself, who can take my play and do my job as good as I can?  If you can’t find an answer then you know that is your role and you have to carry on.  

Why is education important for our young people and their communities both as athletes and leaders?

 

For me education is very important because it is a way to learn more and experience more, and create more opportunities for yourself.  As a student athlete and you are doing well in sports, you have all the opportunities in the world.  The doors are open to you.