By Nathan Kanter

All 4 Sask soccer teams medal at NAIG

Jul 26, 2017 | 2:00 PM

Battlefords Youth Soccer Inc. executive director Kelly Villeneuve is no stranger to the North American Indigenous Games.

He’s been to six of the eight competitions, first attending the 1990 games in Edmonton as a 16-year-old athlete.

At the 2017 games that took place in Toronto last week, Villeneuve, who is of Métis heritage, helped coach the 16U male soccer team to a silver medal.

In fact, all four Saskatchewan soccer teams that competed at NAIG won a medal, as the province won three silver medals and one bronze in the sport.

“I think [the results] speak to the preparation that not only the Saskatchewan Soccer Association, but also the FSIN, what they put into it prior to the games, with selections and all of our training camps over the years,” Villeneueve said. “In general for soccer, most of the players from the soccer teams all came from the northwest region, between P.A. and North Battleford, and it just shows the soccer associations like Battlefords Youth Soccer Inc. and Prince Albert Youth Soccer are developing their Aboriginal athletes in a way that they are able to succeed on an international level.”

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Eleven BYSI athletes competed on the four soccer teams at NAIG: Mason Bird, Levin Lightfoot, Juleus Moosomin, Ian Peeteetuce, Draydin Stone, Ethan and Trey Kennedy, River Checkosis, Tishandra Meechance, and Graci Albert. Two more boys not affiliated with BYSI but from local First Nations communities also played: Creighton Baptiste, from Poundmaker First Nation, who plays in Cut Knife, and Tavoda Lewis, from Little Pine, who plays in Saskatoon at Astra Academy.

Villeneuve said the results are a huge positive because it helps encourage younger Indigenous soccer players in the area to get involved.

“It’s just a word of mouth, coming back with medals, all the shirts and the coats that they’ll have, it’ll really inspire the younger kids as well,” Villeneuve said. “And there’s another games in three more years – I think it’s going to be hosted by either Manitoba or Ontario again – so the 16U teams will have an opportunity to try out for the 19U teams in three years time. So they’re really looking forward to that.”

The 16U male team that Villeneuve was on the coaching staff for lost in the gold medal game 1-0 to B.C. They were in tough, as B.C. won their first three games by a combined score of 22-0.

“We actually ended up getting two red cards in the second half, so we played two men down and we still only lost by one goal,” Villeneuve said. “I was really proud of the boys to play through it and we played our system. B.C. gave us a lot of compliments after on, we were the closest team to them in the tournament and it showed because B.C. rolled over everybody else.”

B.C. ended up winning gold in all four soccer divisions.

NAIG was about more than just scores and results, however, and Villeneuve made sure to point that out.

“[These games] were really well supported, but it wasn’t just the sport. It was also the other social aspects of the games, where they met all the kids from all over and there was a lot of cultural exchange,” he said. “These games were supported by the federal government and provincial government a lot more than other games and it was because of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, where one of the calls to action was to support these games.”

The government certainly supported these games more than they had in the past, but not everything was covered for the athletes.

Each athlete had to pay $800 to go to Toronto, although most of them were sponsored by their bands, Villeneuve said. 

But the improved financial commitment was noticable, and also should be expected to continue for games in the future.

“I think the federal government and the provincial government were behind this kind of event because of all of the elements it hit, in terms of the mental, the spiritual, the physical, and the emotional side of the athlete,” Villeneuve said. “They know this is a good thing to support and we’ve been told this thing will continue.”

NAIG won’t be the only competition for Indigenous athletes in the future.

Villeneuve said there will now be a master’s Indigenous Games for athletes 20 years and older, starting in 2018.

“When the call to action came out to support the North American Indigenous Games, there was an effort to create a master’s because so many different provinces and the leadership from the kids that used to go are now coahces,” Villeneuve said, he among the athletes-turned-coach. “We’re looking forward to that, myself included, and we’re going all the way up to 55-plus age groups so that’s going to be really exciting for the next year.” 

nathan.kanter@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @NathanKanter11