They’re having a ball

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This article was published 24/02/2020 (2044 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A new volleyball program is holding court for young Indigenous athletes from across Manitoba on the province’s competitive elite club volleyball scene.

Each week, members of Agoojin Volleyball Club travel from their homes in rural Indigenous communities to downtown Winnipeg. It’s often a lengthy drive to the Sport for Life Centre, but it’s a trip the club’s 25 athletes — and their family members — are willing to make to pursue the game and represent their community alongside the 20-plus teams on the urban club volleyball circuit.

Winnipeg’s Jayme Menzies co-founded Agoojin Volleyball in 2018 with assistant coach Tristan Dreilich after the pair wrapped up serving as the bench bosses for the U19 girls’ provincial squad at the 2017 North American Indigenous Games.

From the sidelines of the national tournament, Menzies had a privileged perspective on the talent that exists in Indigenous communities across Manitoba — one that recruiters for college and university teams often did not, she said.

“We thought, ‘What can we do to show off our Indigenous athletes, and hold them up high and make them heroes in their communities and provide them with the training they need to take the next step in sport?’” said Menzies, 33.

“Not because we believe sport matters ultimately, but it allows them to have lifelong physical and mental health, and allows them to maybe access post-secondary education; it allows them to feel like they can leave the reserve and have a community.”

Agoojin — which translates roughly from Ojibwa to “she hangs in the sky” — offers a novel framework for female and two-spirit volleyball players to develop their talent while reducing barriers to the sport.

“Most Indigenous women, outside of the city especially, they barely have a school program that trains for a few weeks; they definitely don’t have club programs, and then they’re not really at a point where they can access the provincial team, either,” Menzies said.

“We wanted to fill the gap and create a place where Indigenous athletes, if they want that extra training and want to push themselves and build on their potential, there’s somewhere they can go where they can feel safe and like themselves.”

The Métis lawyer, certified coach and mom to an 18-month-old son, played five years with the University of Winnipeg Wesmen women’s volleyball team as a left-side hitter and setter before heading to law school at the University of Manitoba. After she was called to the bar in 2013, Menzies worked in the child-welfare system and was involved in developing governance policies for Indigenous communities.

“I thought both of those things would be really good outlets for being able to facilitate change or empower Indigenous communities and also continue immersing myself in the culture,” she said.

“After a couple of years, I was finding that the oppressive framework was so deeply entrenched that one person or a group of people can’t change it from within; it’s so complex.”

All the while, she continued to run volleyball clinics across the province.

“That felt like a more meaningful way for me to spend my time, because what I learned is that the more impactful thing is creating relationships with people and creating spaces for fun, health and mental well-being,” she said.

In the formative months of Agoojin, Menzies was simultaneously collecting testimony from families speaking to the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.

The 18 months she spent working for the inquiry’s legal unit with grief-stricken families cemented her resolve to bring Agoojin into being and to create an environment for young women to flourish as athletes and leaders.

“I’m finding new ways that it’s linked every day, really,” she said. “Sport isn’t for everyone, I know that for sure, but it is one way that gets a person out of bed in the morning… makes a person hold down a job because they’re wanting to make money to pay these fees to play, and on weekends they’re sweating and having good sleeps instead of being on their devices all weekend long.”

In Agoojin’s second season, Menzies has assembled a volunteer coaching staff of eight to run U16 and U18 teams, both of which are currently competing in mainstream tournaments across the province.

Last year, two of the club’s athletes went on to play at the post-secondary level, evidence of the program’s success that Dreilich said he found rewarding. He continues to be honoured by the trust players have in Agoojin.

“I’m very proud of all the athletes… they all took a risk playing for us,” he said. “It’s humbling to acknowledge that and to be a part of something that’s new, and pushes at something a little greater than winning a banner,” he said.

“I think Jayme has done a fantastic job of taking a holistic view of the athlete: understanding that they come from a place, have knowledge to share, they have strengths and building on those strengths,” he said.

“She technically understands the sport very well, but her ability to marry that with the holistic vision for treating the athlete as a whole person, and treating sport as a vehicle for community empowerment is really inspiring in a lot of ways.”

danielle.dasilva@freepress.mb.ca