Windspeaker Sports Briefs - January 2013

Hockey equipment drive
Thanks in large part to a Junior A hockey coach, Aboriginal youth in a northern Ontario community received some much needed equipment.

Alex Welker, an assistant coach with the Ontario Junior Hockey League’s Whitby Fury, spearheaded an equipment drive for the Sandy Lake First Nation in early October.

Welker’s son Alex is a first-year teacher in the northern Ontario community. The younger Welker told his father the First Nation has a decent arena but not all youth had the equipment to play hockey.

With the assistance of some other organizations, the elder Welker then started collecting used equipment to send to the First Nation.

More than 400 items, including 70 pairs of skates, were collected for the fly-in community. The Sandy Lake First Nation is located about 600 kilometres north of Thunder Bay.

Besides equipment donors, the drive also required the assistance of several others. For example, the equipment was driven to Thunder Bay in a truck for free. And then an Aboriginal-owned airline, Wasaya Airways, took over from there, flying the equipment, again for free, into the Sandy Lake First Nation.

The equipment was then brought to the local school where members of the community were able to sort through and choose equipment they could use.

Olympian lends a hand
Former Canadian Olympic cross-country skier Beckie Scott is once again helping out with the Ski Fit North program in her home province of Alberta. This marks the fourth year Scott has been involved with the program, which helps to introduce Aboriginal youth to cross-country skiing. The program is operated by Cross Country Alberta and Cross Country Canada.

Scott, who is now 38, grew up in Vermilion, Alta. She competed in three Winter Olympics, starting with the 1998 Nagano Games in Japan.

Next she competed at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics. During those games she was presented with a bronze medal in the five-kilometre pursuit event. But her medal was later upgraded to gold when the two Russian competitors who placed ahead of her were disqualified for using a performance-enhancing drug.

Scott won another Olympic medal from the 2006 Games in Turin, Italy. She captured a silver medal, along with her teammate Sara Renner, in the team sprint event.

A year ago the Ski Fit North program visited 21 communities. More than 3,300 children, ranging in age from 6 to 14, took part in the program.

Scott and other program organizers bring along skis and poles for the youngsters to use. Besides introducing cross-country skiing to those who have never tried the sport, during each Ski Fit North visit Scott also talks to program participants on what to strive for in sports and life. She also preaches about the importance of healthy eating habits.

Kahnawake lands nationals
Kahnawake, the Mohawk territory located south of Montreal, has been awarded hosting rights for the 2013 National Aboriginal Hockey Championships (NAHC).

This marks the second time Kahnawake has hosted the event. It first staged the NAHC in 2006.

The NAHC, which primarily features bantam- and midget-aged (14 to 17) players, has been held annually since 2002.

A total of 16 clubs (eight female, eight male) are expected to compete in the 2013 tournament.

The squads expected to enter both female and male teams represent the following areas: British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Eastern Door and the North (Quebec), Team Atlantic (New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland) and Team North (Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut).

The majority of the tournament games will be held at the Kahnawake Sports Complex, which has a capacity of about 1,500 spectators. Some matches will also be staged in nearby Brossard.
The seven-day tournament will begin on April 28 and continue until May 4.

Back in California
After a year of playing pro hockey in Italy, Ryan Constant is back in North America this season, once again playing in California.
Constant, a 27-year-old defenceman from the Opaskwayak Cree Nation in Manitoba, had spent the 2011-12 campaign in Milan, Italy with a club called Hockey Milano Rossoblu.

As for this season, he’s playing in the East Coast Hockey League with the Stockton Thunder. Constant had played two seasons for the California-based Thunder before heading overseas last year.
Since turning pro in 2006, Constant has also toiled for three other minor pro franchises in North America.

He’s seen action with the ECHL’s Charlotte Checkers as well as a pair of American Hockey League squads, the Hartford Wolf Pack and Springfield Falcons.

Constant had 11 points, including three goals, in his first 23 games in Stockton this season.