Event celebrates Indigenous excellence in sport

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This article was published 17/04/2023 (959 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It was a night to celebrate Indigenous excellence in sport.

The second annual Manitoba Aboriginal Sports and Recreation Council’s awards dinner, held April 12 at Assiniboine Park Zoo, honoured 12 Manitobans for their contribution to sport.

The night’s honourees included:

• Arnold Asham, Brian Chrupalo, Michelle Foreman, Shelly Hruska, Jamie Leach and the late Maurice Camyré, who were inducted into the Manitoba Indigenous Sports Hall of Fame

• Abigail Sweeny and Alexander De La Ronde were named athletes of the year

• Mamie Kroeker-Tom and William Whiteway were named coaches of the year

• Trechelle Bunn and Ray Star were named volunteers of the year

One by one, recipients were called to the podium to accept their awards in front of a small crowd of mostly family and friends. They shared their passion and dedication to sports and expressed their gratitude for being recognized among their peers.

“Don’t just take a job,” Asham said in a short but powerful acceptance speech, during which the Métis founder of Asham Curling Supplies spoke about getting into the curling business by accident.

“I discovered this slider that was better than any in the world, I tried to decide whether I was going to save it to win a world championship or share it,” said Asham, the founder of the Métis dance group, the Asham Stompers. ”Of course, I decided to share it, and the rest is history.”

That was 1977, when the company launched the Red Brick Slider — a game-changing innovation that enables curlers to slide further because of the ribs across the bottoms of the shoes.

While he said he’s proud of seeing people wear Asham shoes, he’s most proud of dancing in Indigenous communities with young people.

“We’re saving lives and that’s one thing that’s in my soul,” he said.

Hall of fame inductee Chrupalo, the first Indigenous football official in Canadian Football League history, who has officiated more than 278 games in his career, spoke of his experience blending his culture in the game.

“I pushed the envelope with the CFL last year to wear a beaded lanyard with a Fox 40 whistle, and I thought that was a big step,” said Chrupalo, who hails from Pine Creek First Nation. “And then I made the mistake of telling the CFL that I’ve been taking Ojibwe lessons, and at the time the NHL was announcing hockey games in Cree and I said, ‘I can do that’ without thinking.

“You know how hard it is to translate English to Ojibwe?” he said with a laugh.

Chrupalo made history last fall when he announced penalties in both Ojibwe and English during the Truth and Reconciliation Game between the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and Saskatchewan Roughriders.

He said he was moved to see a sea of orange shirts during that special game.

Hruska, a Métis athlete from Winnipeg who has participated in both ringette and bandy, said she didn’t know where she would be — or who she would have become — without sport and recreation.

“The two are so intertwined in my life that my favourite part of any day is in a field, a rink, a court, a course, an ocean, a pool or a path,” she said. “Even cutting grass, raking leaves or shovelling snow can seem like sports therapy.”

Leach, a former NHL right winger for the Pittsburgh Penguins and two-time Stanley Cup champion, said he was honoured to be part of this year’s class of athletes. (His father, NHL alumna Reggie Leach, aka the Riverton Rifle, was honoured at the awards last year.)

Jamie said he’s grateful that hockey was a part of his life and is most proud of being a part of Shoot To Score Hockey, a program that provides hockey training and development services in North America, including summer programs, remote community camps, coach mentorship and one-on-one training.

“I get to now coach athletes, coaches and work with parents. That’s something that I’m very, very proud of,” he said. “It’s great being inducted as a player, for me personally, what’s more important is what we’re doing now — working with the youth. Let’s call a spade a spade, the youth are our future.”

Mel Whitesell, the council’s executive director, eloquently summed up the evening: “recognizing and honouring the past, present, and future of Indigenous Sport in Manitoba.”

shelley.cook@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter @ShelleyACook