Like many young Inuit, 15-year-old Team Canada darts champion Caidynce Rever from Cambridge Bay was struggling with her mental health.
Living in Alberta for the past few years and searching for an outlet, the accomplished darts player said that her mother encouraged her to channel her frustrations into the dart board.
“My mom was kind of worried about me, so she asked me two days before a tournament, ‘Do you want to go play darts?’ I’d never played darts before. I’d played at home with my mom from time to time... but then we went down for a tournament in Fort McMurray about a year and three months ago for Team Alberta. That was my first-ever tournament. I played. I didn’t really know anyone. I was quiet, but I played. And I sort of fell in love with it. And I started playing tournaments all around the province.”
For training, Rever goes to the local Legion.
“I have a coach: Bud [Boland]. Every Wednesday we go out, and he helps us with our throw, with everything we need... I’m on the dart board every day [training],” she said.
Rever described her winning technique.
“I’ll start to bring it under my eye, and throw it and follow my arm through the target. If I miss it, I take a step back, I breathe, take a step back and try it again. Clearly it works, because I made Team Alberta.”
Rever’s invitation to join Team Canada in Hungary for the World Masters in October, along with 19 other competitors, was extended after nationals concluded on May 19 in Saint Hyacinthe, Que. She placed third in the Quebec competition but ranks first in Alberta and Canada overall.
“I have no clue what to expect,” says Rever, for whom this will be the first trip out the country for the international competition in Budapest. “I feel really nervous, but really excited... they’ve been telling me the competition is much harder... I was not expecting to make Team Canada. I kind of just went and played my hardest. I was so shocked. I feel like I can do [well], I just need confidence.
“I just play my own game when I’m playing my competition. I just clear my head like I’m at home practising, and that’s when I throw my best darts.
“My coach has been helping me. He took me out on Friday night and congratulated me, and said, ‘We’re going to get you ready, you’ll be ready’... He’s kind of just there for me. I got home and he said, ‘I’m so proud of you’ and tells me, “When you go in, just play your own game like you always do.’ That’s his best advice because no matter what it makes me so calm. He always tells me, ‘Go in and have fun, no matter what we’ll always be proud.’ If I’m nervous, he’ll spend 15 or 20 minutes with me on the dart board because that’s what I need.”
Rever says she is looking forward most to going into a big competition. As the first Inuk player to be on Team Canada for darts, she advises her peers in Cambridge Bay about chasing a major goal.
“If you just try, and you take time to practice, you totally can do it. If you want to make the team, you just practice and believe in yourself.”