Manitobans aim to excel at Indigenous Games

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This article was published 14/07/2023 (815 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The next eight days mean more than the outcome of each contest to Wizdom Smith. The talented right-side wants to prove he’s among the best young volleyball players Manitoba has to offer, and that top athletes can come from even the most unlikely places.

Smith, 17, is on the early flight to Dartmouth, N.S. this morning, where he and the other 11 members of Team Manitoba’s U19 men’s volleyball squad will play in the North American Indigenous Games, taking place July 15 – 23.

It’s the first time since 2017 that the NAIG is running, owing to the pandemic. Manitoba will send more than 500 Indigenous athletes, ages 13-19, to compete across 16 sports in the multi-disciplinary event.

Smith will compete in the NAIG for the first time. It’s the grandest stage he’s played on in a career that’s barely two years old, and he plans to his mark in front of the other 5,000 athletes from 750 nations set to participate.

“I’m just trying to compete as hard as I can,” said Smith, who plays at the club level for 204 Volleyball. “People always say, ‘(I) got this much potential, that much potential,’ and I haven’t really shown it yet. And I’d like to show it at the highest level that I can and I have the opportunity to do it.

“So I’m really excited. I just want to show people what I can do, and just a glimpse of next season.”

The towering 6-7 185-pounder grew up in Hallow Water First Nation, two hours north of Winnipeg, where few play sports beyond an occasional basketball camp.

Smith found it easy to keep active, however, noting “it’s very isolated over there — not much to do.”

In 2021, the teen moved to the Manitoba capital and promptly took up competitive sports at Dakota Collegiate. It didn’t take long for the school’s volleyball coaches to notice his athleticism.

Smith was shooting hoops with a friend in the gym one day when the coaches asked if he could touch the rim, which stands 10 feet high. Smith grabbed it seamlessly, and he was immediately asked to try out.

“From there, I was so natural,” Smith said. “It didn’t take me that long to learn (volleyball).”

Indeed, the intrigue around Smith grew even more as coaches learned he’s left-handed, a rare advantage when facing opposing teams who are used to seeing the volleyball struck with the right hand.

Now set to take part in the NAIG, Smith views the next week as a chance to push himself, and his career, to new heights.

“I’m up there with the best but I’m not clearly the best — I haven’t proved it yet so all I want to do is compete. I love competing, that’s all I do is compete,” said Smith.

“And where I’m from, Hallow Water, people don’t play sports. They’re not very athletic, they don’t do this, do that, so I want to do it for them. I want to show them that people from here can really play, too.”

The Manitoba constituency will also have some talent on the mat. Anaka Chartrand, a product of St. Laurent, will try to pin the competition in the women’s 64-kilogram U16 wrestling event.

Though it’s Chartrand’s debut in the NAIG, she’s hardly new to big stages. The teen has grappled at the Western Canada Summer Games, Canada Games and, most recently, the Pan-American championships in Mexico at the end of June.

“I’m really excited to compete and represent the Red River Métis and I’m also really looking forward to seeing all the different Indigenous cultures come together,” said Chartrand, 16. “I’m also really excited to experience the games with my brother.”

Indeed Chartrand’s brother, Beau, also a wrestler, will make the trip to the Maritimes to participate. The siblings train out of Schewa Wrestling Club in Winnipeg.

“I’m very excited to experience it. I love to see the people doing well and I’m just really excited to see everyone doing good and the competition for it, obviously it’s going to be a very good experience for everyone.”

Chartrand has wrestled for five years but started in jiu-jitsu when she was nine. She took up wrestling when she was 11 to improve her abilities in the mix-martial art but wound up taking it on full-time because she liked it better.

Chartrand said she usually wrestles in the 61kg division but that it was a bit easier to move up a weight class than drop to the 58kg division. It’s yet another challenge in the sport she’s willing to embrace.

“I really like wrestling, not only for the sport but also because it reaches a lot of life lessons, too. It teaches you about hard work, dedication and perseverance. It’s not just the wrestling part of it, it also teaches you life lessons so that’s really big for me,” she said.

“I’m going to try my best (at the NAIG). I’m going to go out there and give it my all and try to come home with the gold.”

jfreysam@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @jfreysam