Canada's national sport is coming back to the NWT.
And no, it's not hockey.Overlander Sports and the Aboriginal Sports Circle of the NWT have been approached by community members from Fort Simpson and Kuglugtuk, Nunavut, for lacrosse equipment with the goal of starting their own programs.
hey will be the first such programs in the territory.
Fort Simpson resident Stephanie Hardisty said she is on a mission to give the community's youth the opportunity to play the game.
Hardisty was born and raised in the Toronto area and was one of many lacrosse players in her family.
Citing a lack of summer sports in Fort Simpson, Hardisty wants to start the program to give youth in the community the same opportunities she had growing up.
"I think this will be a fun thing for the youth to do and it will help them fill their summer hours with more sport," said Hardisty. "I played lacrosse my whole life so I'm pretty familiar with the game, I know there are a couple people in the community that grew up playing the sport as well so hopefully they will jump in."
She plans to start the league this summer and hopes the sport becomes popular enough that the territory will someday field a team to represent the NWT at the North American Indigenous Games.
"I went to the North American Indigenous Games in Toronto last July and noticed Team NWT wasn't (represented in lacrosse) so that fired me up to get this program started," said Hardisty.
"It's a great game where you learn a lot of life skills; working by yourself and working with a team. Everyone working together to achieve one common goal and anything to get our kids staying active is great."
Twenty-five to 30 kids have already signed up to play lacrosse in Fort Simpson this summer, she said.
To help with the launch of the summer program Hardisty has enlisted the help of Overlander Sports and the Aboriginal Sports Circle of the NWT. Both groups have graciously donated equipment, she said.
"Anything is a start seeing as we don't have any equipment here or any place to buy equipment in Fort Simpson," she said.
Overlander Sports manager Jordan Crosby said he was happy to donate the unused lacrosse equipment as it had been taking up storage space for a long time.
Lacrosse is played in two ways. There's box lacrosse where teams compete on a hard surface inside an arena and field lacrosse, which is played outdoors.
Hardisty said she would like to eventually bring the game to the arena floor but first she'll be establishing an outdoor team.