Three Vernon, B.C. teens chosen for North American Indigenous Games

Three Vernon, B.C. teens will head across the country in a few months, to play one of Canada’s national sports at the 2023 North American Indigenous Games.

The North Okanagan U17 Legends were practicing ahead of their next lacrosse game Monday night, but three of them are preparing for a competition of their own.

“Not many people do this, going to Nova Scotia and playing. Just nice to be one of them,” said Taylor Robins-Swanson.

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Caelen Cross, Taylor Robins-Swanson and Koenn Mahar-Robins will fly across the country to represent Team BC at the North American Indigenous Games in Halifax, NS.

“I’m just super excited to be named to the team, super honoured, it’s just such a cool experience that happens once every four years. I’m just super excited to go and see how it goes,” said Cross.

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The games were supposed to take place in 2020 but were cancelled due to the pandemic.

When the roster was announced for this year’s U16 team, only a handful of kids were chosen from the Interior and that makes for one proud parent.

“For them to be here from the North Okanagan on the same team all three boys together it’s a great honour for Vernon and the Okanagan Indian Band, Okanagan all together right,” said Williams Robins, dad of Koenn Mahar-Robins.

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The teens have been playing lacrosse all their lives and this isn’t the first time they’ve been chosen for an Indigenous team, and being from a small community takes this accomplishment to a whole other level.

“It shows that you can work as a team and other stuff in the sport. There’s not many from here, especially from a small town like this,” said Robins-Swanson.

The boys say the games give them the opportunity to hopefully be noticed by some big league coaches.

“I think it’s a good pathway to open up more doors for playing professional lacrosse one day or college lacrosse one day,” said Cross.

They also hope to develop their skills along the way.

“You know try to go up in the big leagues and all that try to make the NLL maybe see how it goes,” said Mahar-Robins.

The North American Indigenous Games take place this July.