EDMONTON – Some of Canada’s best young First Nations hockey players are gearing up for a big tournament but the goal isn’t just to win.
The men and women who make up Team Alberta’s rosters boarded a plane to Mississauga, Ontario Friday afternoon in preparation for the National Aboriginal Hockey Championships.
Before they left, the players hit the ice for the first time as a team during a brief practice at Kinsmen Arena.
The players are from all across Alberta and have various First Nations backgrounds including status, non-status, Metis and Inuit.
DeeJay Alook, the coach of the men’s squad, explained his team goals.
“We’re just trying to build the program on character,” he said. “We’re trying to build personal excellence through hockey with these youngsters.”
The players are between 14 and 17 years old and many have never played on a strictly aboriginal team before.
“What we find is they’re embarrassed about their culture and so it’s being a little more proud about it.”
Nicholas Laboucan is a Whitefish Lake treaty member. He’s a veteran with the team and will be making the trip with his dad and uncle.
“Without this Team Alberta, I’d be shy about my culture,” he said. “Just because when you grow up in a town, you don’t have other aboriginal people to lean on.”
Coaching staff hold a sweet grass ceremony before each game to clear players’ minds and help them focus.
“I didn’t really know my cultural background. I didn’t know any ceremonial aspects of my own culture but Team Alberta taught me how to smudge and give back to the younger kids,” Laboucan said.
“It helps you develop the culture. I’ve never been into First Nations anything,” Brooke Tipton said, explaining how tradition is laced in with hockey for this tournament.
“Just how spiritual they are. Coaches will talk about their ancestors in the dressing room. I’ve never had that before.”
Players say sharing a common culture also helps bonds develop more quickly. They say on these teams, they don’t face judgement or stereotyping.
“With these guys, in the first couple days, you’re already good friends – buddies.” Laboucan explained. “That’s what’s good about it. You become a team and then at the end we become brothers.”
The tournament also opens doors for players like Laboucan.
“There are some cases we looked at where they’re maybe playing a little further north so this gives them a little more exposure,” his coach, Alook, said.
Laboucan said his goal is to have his name on the back of a jersey for a team that has its games broadcast live.
Already, his experiences with Team Alberta have changed his everyday life.
“Without this I would never have heard my own traditional music, never tried to sing it. Now, I’m proud to tell anybody that I’m First Nations.”