‘Forever grateful for football’ Experiencing extreme hardship in childhood inspires teen to success on the field and off By: Joshua Frey-Sam Posted: 6:09 PM CST Monday, Jan. 8, 2024 Last Modified: 8:33 AM CST Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2024 Updates

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Asun Ducharme is still afraid to walk alone.

The Winnipeg teen is a long way from his South Indian Lake home where he watched violence and addiction take several family members and cripple the community.

He can’t evade the images and sounds of grief that run rampant in his mind.

“It has a big impact on me. I’ve suffered a lot of PTSD type of symptoms… I always feel like someone’s trying to get me, you know?” Ducharme, 17, said.

Ducharme, a 6-1, 215-pound linebacker, isn’t alone on the football field, however, and his past has become his biggest motivation. In fact, the gridiron is his sanctuary, helping him overcome a chaotic upbringing to become one of the premier linebackers in the province with the Dakota Lancers high school football team.

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South Indian Lake, the main settlement of O-Pipon-Na-Piwin Cree Nation, is located 130 km northwest of Thompson and is home to more than 1,100 people— many of whom live in poverty. It’s common for community members to turn to alcohol and addiction — which has fostered an abundance of violence — to cope with their situation.

Last March, the First Nation declared a state of emergency after three separate drug- and alcohol-related deaths in a two-week span. Band leaders urged the federal and provincial governments to help the community in the form of crisis support for people battling trauma, addiction and mental health issues, and control the flow of alcohol entering the community by limiting the hours of operation for the local ferry.

As a youngster, Ducharme bounced between the community and Winnipeg six times by the time he was nine years old, also spending a year in Lynn Lake, while his mom raised him and his sister and battled ongoing financial issues.

“Obviously, the reserve and Winnipeg were super different places,” Ducharme said. “There’s a lot of times when you’re surrounded by negativity and stuff. The biggest difference for me was the amount of violence that I saw on the reserve compared to Winnipeg, especially at a young age.

“But the reserve also had a lot more family there, so I kind of felt more like I belonged there.”

His family lived in a small home without running water and a functioning sewage system. That home was eventually burnt down — a story he didn’t want to share — so they moved in with his grandmother and shared a room until they moved south to the Manitoba capital for good.

Ducharme, by his own admission, was a ‘big, angry kid’ who took to soccer first. It only took a couple of red cards before one of the coaches, former Winnipeg Blue Bombers defensive back Boyd Barrett, suggested he take his physicality to the gridiron.

“That changed my whole life, man,” he said. “It’s changed the course of my life, it’s pushed me to be a positive individual… it’s just done so much for me and I’m forever grateful for football.

“Every time I play, that’s what I think about, that’s what motivates me. Just knowing that I come from an environment where I have so much less than everyone else and an environment where I’m seeing people I love get hurt, family members getting murdered, or people you know going through a lot, it really motivates me, especially in the game of football because it’s such a physical game,” he said.

“I feel like I wouldn’t be playing football if I didn’t live that type of life.”

During the 2023 season, the Grade 12 student-athlete became the vocal leader of the squad as the Lancers captured the program’s first ANAVETS Bowl championship— the AAAA conference title — in the Winnipeg High School Football League.

“I would go as far as to say he’s probably, in terms of vocal leadership, the best vocal leader I’ve been around this level,” said Lancers head coach Mitch Harrison.

Ducharme’s life story proved inspirational on the road to glory for Dakota.

The Lancers were in disarray following their first loss of the season to the St. Paul’s Crusaders on Oct. 6. In a team meeting the next week, Ducharme spoke about his traumatic upbringing — and how football and being part of a team provided him with purpose and hope.

The speech brought several teammates and coaches to tears.

“It just put a lot of stuff into perspective,” Harrison said. “I think it was super powerful. It was kind of like bringing the hammer down, like, ‘This is serious. I take this seriously, you should all take this seriously because it is an important thing and you don’t get opportunities like this all the time.’ You could see it on the kids’ faces that they understood the message, they responded to it and, honestly, as a team, we were so much stronger.

“He’s one of the most passionate kids that I’ve ever met, regardless of what he’s doing,” Harrison continued. “He’s just really in the moment, and I’d say that’s pretty hard to find with a lot of kids.”

Set to graduate in June, Ducharme officially holds offers from the University of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Regina, McMaster University, Mount Allison University, Saint Mary’s University and St. Francis Xavier University, and is in talks with several other schools.

He was also named the Indigenous Athlete of the Month in October by the Manitoba Aboriginal Sports and Recreation Council.

Ducharme said he plans to share his story with other Indigenous youth who have been dealt a similar hand. Perhaps, he can inspire others to find their own sanctuary, even if they, too, are afraid to walk alone.

“That’s always been a thing I’ve wanted to do because, especially in my mind, I was honestly never really supposed to become anything — or at least that’s what I thought because of how I was living,” he said.

“I just want to let people know that if I can do it, you can do it. I know what it’s like to have no food in the fridge, to have your power and heat cut off or no running water, or to lose people you love to violence, to murder, to drugs, whatever. And I just want to let people know that anything is possible through hard work and dedication.”

jfreysam@freepress.mb.ca

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