A great, big football family

Windsor Park

East Kildonan

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This article was published 18/02/2026 (224 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Windsor Park-based football team has an extra 25,000 reasons to be cheerful.

The Falcons Football Club, based on Maginot Street, was recently named one of three Canadian recipients of an NFL Forward Pass grant.

The Falcons will receive a $25,000 donation from NFL Canada to help expand access to the sport and remove financial barriers.

Coaches, players, and community members were invited to nominate their programs and share how the funding would help them grow football locally.

Kathy Calancia, head coach of the Falcons girls’ senior team, said the financial injection will be used to support the growth of its Indigenous girls’ football program in Sagkeeng First Nation.

“This is huge for us,” said Calancia, who lives in East Kildonan and previously coached the northeast Winnipeg-based East Side Eagles. She was brought in by the Falcons because of her “specialized skill-set.”

“We need shoulder pads, and the girls need a different kind of shoulder pad compared to the men,” she said.

“We also need a new lawnmower to cut the grass super, super low. We had a new scoreboard last year, and we have lights going in this coming season.”

In keeping with its mandate to provide sporting opportunities for youth, and after years of developing amateur football in the Bonivital area of Winnipeg, Falcons Football Club extended its reach beyond city limits by partnering with Sagkeeng.

Falcons fielded its first girls’ team in 2023, and the collaboration continues to produce a number of players from Sagkeeng, and also strengthens the bond between the two communities.

“The partnership is a huge opportunity for them. It’s beyond words, and it’s about so much more than sport. It’s about teaching life lessons, and producing strong, independent women,” Calancia said

The coach said she was proud of the development of the team’s players and their commitment and work ethic.

“The Sagkeeng players live 90 minutes away — they wake up at 7 a.m., go to school, and after school two or three days a week they hop on a bus to come into the city, arrive just before 6 p.m., get into their equipment to play a game, and then they’re home at 11 p.m. People have no idea have much dedication they have.”

Calancia said the team and the staff set goals every year, which she said are realistic.

“We started from the ground up, so for them to come in and learn in the little time we’ve had makes me so incredibly proud. Not just playing football, but the changes they’ve made in themselves,” she said.

“This is a really good way to learn about each other’s cultures. Both sets of players have learned a lot about each other’s lifestyles. Despite only being an hour-and-a-half away, their lives can be very different.”

One of the Sagkeeng-based players, Louise Moose, said playing for the Falcons has been an awesome experience.

“It has helped me with a lot of things I’ve been going through,” said Moose, a Grade 11 student at Sagkeeng Anicinabe High School.

After a bit of a rough start, Moose said her time with the team has helped her become more vocal — as well as helping her “let things go” — and has also been a way to meet new people and become closer with some of her classmates.

“This has kind of made us into a big football family, and we have each other’s backs,” Moose said, noting she doesn’t mind the travelling on game days.

Moose is grateful to her mom, Cheyenne, and her sister, Destiny, for their support. Destiny also plays football.

She’s also thankful for Calancia’s mentorship: “I love Coach Kathy. She’s the best coach ever, and a very kind person.”

The other two Canadian football programs awarded grants were the North Toronto Sentinels in Ontario and the Sun Youth Hornets Football Club in Quebec.

Visit falconsfootball.ca