Call it home court advantage, call it good luck, call it whatever you want but whatever you call it, you can't say it without calling them champions.
James McCarthy/NNSL photo
Dylan Bishop Nitsiza of Mildred Hall, left, does battle with his opponent in the arm pull during action in the Traditional Games Championships at William McDonald School on Saturday.
William McDonald School are your 2020 Traditional Games Championships overall winners after clinching the title in their own gymnasium on Saturday. The team of four boys and four girls ended up with an overall total of 36 points, good enough to see them to the top of the heap in the annual event hosted by the Aboriginal Sports Circle of the NWT.
William McDonald student Reanna Brownlee, who competed in the last two championships before this year, helped coach the Wildcats to victory and was too old to do it this time around; the rules state that it's open to those between the ages of 10 to 12.
She said she wanted to stick around and help coach this year's team to stay involved.
“I've always been interested in traditional games, especially since I did so well last year,” she said. “I asked to be part of the team this year but I was too old so I offered to coach.”
The championships featured a mix of Dene games and Arctic sports over the two days of competition on Feb. 15 and 16. Following the opening ceremony on Feb. 14, the athletes competed in snowsnake, wrist hang, two-foot high kick, stick pull and hand games on day one and the arm pull, pole push, one-foot high kick and the hand games finals on day two.
Brownlee said the high kick events were the ones she wanted the athletes to focus on the most.
“They needed to know how to do the proper form so they could go higher than the other athletes,” she said. “I just showed them how to do it properly and they all did really well.”
The team members must have paid heed to what Brownlee had to say as the Wildcats never trailed at any point during the competition.
Brownlee said the athletes themselves were surprised at how well they did over the course of the weekend.
“They didn't think they would do as well as they actually performed,” she said. “They were doing good at all of our practices and I knew they would do well.”
Being just one year removed from the competition, Brownlee said she found herself wanting to jump in and compete herself but she knew her role was to provide guidance.
“I wanted to get out there and show them how to do it before they did it but they were good at it already and they knew what they had to do,” she said. “I didn't need to show them much but I was there just in case they needed some extra help.”
The team's practices consisted of two solid weeks of work along with some extra time during what's known at the school as the 'morning wake-ups', a series of activities to help get the school body ready for the day ahead, she added.
Brownlee wanted to be part of the coaching staff all the time but she said she also used her time as coach as part of a project she's doing through the school.
“For my Heritage Fair project, I decided to do traditional games,” she said. “I'll be talking about my last two times as an athlete and this last time as a coach so I can talk about it from the athletes' side and now the coaches' side.”
With her first banner under her belt as a coach, Brownlee can relax a bit as she admitted she was a bit nervous about being a first-time coach and being one of the youngest coaches in the event.
“I was so young and I wasn't sure if I as going to be one of the best coaches but I did try my best and I showed them everything I knew about it,” she said. “I'm going to try and ask Mr. (Darren) Wicks to let me continue coaching for as long as I can.”