Sports Briefs - January 2015

Horn-Miller Receives Pan Am Games Post

A Mohawk woman will play a key role for the Canadian squad at the 2015 Pan American Games.

Waneek Horn-Miller was recently named as an assistant chef de mission for the Canadian contingent that will compete at the Games, set for July 10 to July 26 in Toronto and surrounding communities. Horn-Miller, who is from Kahnawake, Que., is no stranger to the Pan Am Games. The former Canadian national team water polo player helped her squad capture the gold medal at the 1999 Pan Am Games in Winnipeg. Horn-Miller went on to become a co-captain of the Canadian women’s squad that competed at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia.

And a year after that she was a member of the Canadian entry that brought home the bronze medal from the world water polo championships.

Horn-Miller is currently living in Ottawa and working for Manitobah Mukluks, a Winnipeg-based Aboriginal footwear company that also has an office in Gatineau, Que.

Horn-Miller was one of two assistant chef de mission chosen for the Canadian squad. Josee Grand’Maitre was also selected as an assistant chef de mission. She’s a former national team racquetball player. Former Canadian cycling star Curt Harnett had previously been named as the Canadian chef de mission.

He participated in four Olympics, three Commonwealth Games and a pair of Pan Am Games.

The Montreal Canadiens’ alumni squad will be playing a charity game at the Mohawk community of Kahnawake, Que.

The contest, scheduled for Feb. 6, will be staged at the Kahnawake Sports Complex. The Kahnawake all-stars will provide the opposition for the match.

Proceeds from the event will go towards the construction of a new children’s park in the community.

It is estimated that it will cost between $30,000 to $40,000 to build the new park. John Chabot, who is Algonquin and played a portion of his pro career with the Canadiens, will suit up for the Montreal alumni squad.

Chabot appeared in a total of 541 NHL contests. He played 77 matches with the Canadiens. Chabot also played for the Pittsburgh Penguins and Detroit Red Wings.

Tewanee Joseph has joined the Vancouver Stealth, one of the Canadian entries in the National Lacrosse League (NLL). But the former lacrosse star will not be suiting up for the NLL franchise.

Instead, Joseph has been appointed as the Stealth’s Senior First Nations Development Advisor.

The Stealth, which plays its home contests in the Vancouver suburb of Langley, is gearing up for its second season in British Columbia. The franchise relocated to Canada from the state of Washington in 2013. Since arriving north of the border, the Stealth brass was keen to work with Aboriginal youth in the area. Joseph sounds like an ideal candidate to lead this venture.

He’s a former Senior A and Senior B lacrosse star in Canada. And he was also a member of the Iroquois Nationals squad that competed at the 1994 Commonwealth Games in Victoria, B.C., where lacrosse was a demonstration sport.

Joseph is now the CEO of Tewanee Consulting Group. This company, based in North Vancouver, works on a broad range of projects including First Nations federal legislation, land management, communications and governance.

Joseph will be responsible for implementing the Stealth’s First Nations community outreach program. The NLL includes three other Canadian clubs, Calgary Roughnecks, Edmonton Rush and Toronto Rock.

The 2015 NLL campaign will also include the Buffalo Bandits, Colorado Mammoth, Minnesota Swarm, New England Black Wolves and Rochester Knighthawks. The Stealth opens its season on Jan. 3 in Calgary.

Two coaches that won the 2013 Canadian Lacrosse League championship have been reunited.

Ron Henry has been named as the head coach of the Ohsweken Demons while Roger Chrysler will serve as his assistant coach. Chrysler had also been a Demons’ assistant coach last year in the league, which is more commonly known as CLax. Henry and Chrysler previously worked together two seasons ago helping the now defunct Iroquois Ironmen capture the CLax crown.

When the league began in 2012 the Demons and Ironmen made a bit of history. They were the only two professional sports franchises to feature all-Native rosters. The Demons won the inaugural CLax championship in 2012.

The Ironmen folded after winning their league title the following year. As for this season, the five-squad CLax will also include the defending league champion Niagara Lock Monsters, Barrie Blizzard, the Oshawa-based Durham Turfdogs and the SouthWest Cyclops, who will play their home contests in Paris, Ont.

The Demons kick off their schedule Jan. 18 on the road versus the Lock Monsters.