{"id":600185159,"date":"2026-02-11T02:00:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T08:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/sports\/2026\/02\/11\/a-young-baller-with-big-dreams"},"modified":"2026-02-11T02:00:19","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T08:00:19","slug":"a-young-baller-with-big-dreams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/sports\/2026\/02\/11\/a-young-baller-with-big-dreams","title":{"rendered":"A young baller with big dreams"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kai Abelardo Wagner is a 10-year-old Grade 5 student at Arthur E. Wright School in The Maples, and he is also a multi-talented athlete.<\/p>\n

“I play football, volleyball, and basketball,” he told me. “I am focused mostly on football because it is fun and competitive. I really enjoy making new friends on the teams I play for. Right now, I am playing flag football. I play receiver. In tackle football I play running back.<\/p>\n

“I like these positions because I get the ball,” Kai explained. “Playing offense is fun and I like scoring touchdowns. My coaches are really good (and) I have great teammates in both tackle and flag football; we have good guys on both teams. They are fun to play with. My head coach, Jesse, introduced me to football and helped me join the Nomads Football Club. My best friend is J.J., and he is the quarterback on my flag and tackle teams.”<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Supplied\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Supplied photo<\/p>\n

Kai Abelardo Wagner is a sports-loving 10-year-old who would love to win a championship playing football one day.<\/p><\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n

Kai lives in north Winnipeg with his dad Trent, mom Maricel, brothers Cade and Ashton, and sister Ava.<\/p>\n

“I would like to say thank you to my parents for supporting me and helping me with my sports and always driving me,” he said.<\/p>\n

Kai is strong in the classroom and is chasing some serious sports dreams.<\/p>\n

“I like school because I get to see my friends. My favourite class is gym because I get to run and play,” he said. “My goals are to win a championship, become a team captain, and to continue to learn and become better. I dream of winning a championship. I would love to play on my high school team one day and win a championship with them. too. Then I hope to play for a university team and ultimately play for an NFL team and win a championship.”<\/p>\n

Kai has some great goals and dreams. He knows what it is going to take to accomplish them. He has this advice for other athletes: “Always try your best, work hard, and put in the effort.”<\/p>

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Kai Abelardo Wagner is a 10-year-old Grade 5 student at Arthur E. Wright School in The Maples, and he is also a multi-talented athlete. “I play football, volleyball, and basketball,” […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":600185160,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"_classifai_error":"","_classifai_text_to_speech_error":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,20,6],"tags":[],"education-subject":[],"media-literacy-topic":[],"post_topic":[],"content_type":[24],"class_list":["post-600185159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-east","category-west","category-sports"],"acf":{"short_title":"","seo_title":"","deck":"","story_tag":"","byline":"Troy Westwood","updates":null},"apple_news_notices":[],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","canonical_url":"https:\/\/winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/sports\/2026\/02\/11\/a-young-baller-with-big-dreams","smart_links":{"inbound":0,"outbound":0},"traffic_boost_suggestions_count":0,"meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"A young baller with big dreams","url":"http:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/sports\/2026\/02\/11\/a-young-baller-with-big-dreams","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/sports\/2026\/02\/11\/a-young-baller-with-big-dreams"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2026\/02\/3951627_web1_Westwood-0211.jpg?w=150&h=150&crop=1","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2026\/02\/3951627_web1_Westwood-0211.jpg"},"articleSection":"Free Press Community Review: East","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"laurieb"}],"creator":["laurieb"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Our Communities","logo":""},"keywords":[],"dateCreated":"2026-02-11T08:00:14Z","datePublished":"2026-02-11T08:00:14Z","dateModified":"2026-02-11T08:00:19Z"},"rendered":"