Athletes from the Sechelt Indian Band (SIB) did their community proud last week, picking up 11 medals in the soccer competition at the North American Indigenous Games in Cowichan.
The medal haul started with the bantam girls soccer team featuring players Emma Carrillo, Kyla Muir and Molly Joe. The team went undefeated in the round robin with a record of 3-0 after a 7-1 win over Eastern Door/The North, 7-0 over Manitoba and 10-0 over Alberta. Team B.C. then defeated Eastern Door again, this time 4-1 in the gold medal game.
Shale Douglas picked up the gold on the bantam boys soccer team, which also went undefeated with a 10-1 win over Alberta, 6-2 win over Manitoba and a 3-2 win over Manitoba again in the gold medal final.
The juvenile girls team also won gold led by Corinna Julius. This team also went undefeated beating Manitoba 4-1, Northwest Territories 3-1 and Saskatchewan 2-1. Team B.C. beat Saskatchewan again 6-1 in the final.
The midget boys team settled for silver after back-to-back heartbreaking 1-0 setbacks to Saskatchewan. The team was undefeated in the first three games - a 16-0 drubbing of Alberta, 12-0 over Northwest Territories and 8-2 over Manitoba. The team included Benny Pierre, Gavin Joe, Grant Mayers and Joyce Joe who served as team manager.
The midget girls team also picked up silver after losing 2-1 to Saskatchewan in the final. Their other games included a 7-0 win over the Yukon, a 3-3 tie with Saskatchewan, a 13-0 win over Alberta and a 6-0 win over Northwest Territories.
All the SIB athletes played major roles on their respective teams, scoring lots of goals, adding assists, preventing goals on defence and showing great sportsmanship and team leadership both on and off the field.
"It was my first time being a manager, and to be there to see all our kids perform so well was very exciting," said Joyce Joe. "This experience was just as good as Denver. When the opening ceremonies started, I had a lump in my stomach. It was very exciting. All of the kids played so well."
Joe went as a parent to support the SIB athletes in 2006 at the last Indigenous Games in which Kelsey, Benny, Gavin, Grant and Stephanie all competed.
On Tuesday night, members of the Band held a community celebration dinner at the SIB hall to honour the athletes.
SIB councillor Tom Paul was on hand to offer congratulations on behalf of chief and council.
Paul told Coast Reporter that the whole community of the Sunshine Coast should be proud for what these athletes accomplished.
"They went over and competed and showed lots of pride," said Paul. "We live soccer in this community, so for us this is a major achievement. We didn't have a lot of time to prepare, so to see how well everyone played is really great. We're going to start preparing now for 2011 and get our youth ready to compete, not only in soccer but also in other events. We have some great baseball players. With the new pool here in Sechelt, we could produce some great swimmers too."
Paul said achievements like this can help pave the way for other athletes. "As a community we need to continue to encourage our young people to be active, try many sports and be the best they can be," said Paul. "Some of the kids are a little disappointed they won silver instead of gold, but they shouldn't feel bad. The competition was great. We're all very proud of them."
More than 4,500 athletes from 24 teams competed in 14 sporting events at the Games held Aug. 3 to 10. The next event is in 2011 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
