Sandy Lake youth learn from university athletes

Sandy Lake First Nation youth were greeted by Lakehead University Thunderwolves this past spring when four Lakehead students came to the community for a three day sports and education event called Reach Up!
“We got a few athletes from the university to come down to Sandy Lake and do some programming for the kids,” said Wayne Kakepetum, Sandy Lake’s band director. “It’s not a regular thing for Sandy Lake, it was planned to happen since in the fall, and we had a few things that happened in the community, and they weren’t able to come.
Kakepetum said the athletes were able to come in this spring and teach the youth about wresting, basketball and other sports and exercises.
The Lakehead University athletes were Nordic skiing Haggarty sisters Daphne and Moira, wrestler Scott Christian and runner Chris Brown.
Kakepetum said the trip was sponsored through Wasaya Airways, Lakehead University and Right to Play.
When the four Lakehead students arrived in the community, they were brought to the community radio station to announce their arrival and plan for the three days they would be in the community.
They invited all youth aged 8 to 18 to come to the high school.
“It must have worked because almost 70 kids showed up to see what Reach Up! was all about,” said Daphne Haggarty.
Kakepetum said the youth responded positively to the games.
“It was a new experience for them – being in the middle of the room, having people cheering for them,” said Christian. “Any time you have eager students, teaching them the basics is effortless and rewarding.”
Christian said they were engaged in learning about wrestling.
Moira Haggarty gave the youth lessons in yoga, and said everyone who came to the event enjoyed themselves.
“My favourite part of the trip was leading the ‘East meets West’ yoga. We took the students through a series of balance, strength, stretching and relaxation poses all named after figures from the Ojibwe language,” said Moira.
Reach Up!’s program coordinator, Amanda Nesbitt, said the program was being well received in host communities and that they hope to bring it more in the region.
“They were pretty happy with the programming, the kids and also the ones that came in from Lakehead University,” said Kakepetum.
Seth Fiddler, part of the recreation team at Sandy Lake, who went to the three day event, said the youth enjoyed the activities.
“It went pretty good, the youth were really into it, especially the wrestling one,” said Fiddler.
He said they played a lot of soccer, basketball and wrestling.
“Could probably use some more traditional games, like kickball,” he added.