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AKWESASNE — It was hot on the field outside of the A’nowara’ko:wa Arena on Thursday, with beaming sun and young talent on display.
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At one point in the afternoon, one young participant — who was dripping in sweat after performing some drills — pointed to the new splash pad outside of the arena and shouted: “When I am done, I am going straight into there!”
For a second year in a row, the Ottawa Redblacks football team, in partnership with the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees, hosted a football camp for community members and regional youth to attend.
Open to a slightly older age cohort this year, around 70 participants ages six to 16 registered, and about 50 showed up to take part in the action. The day started with a welcome message, followed by football education, player discussions, and personal reflections; some Redblacks players shared stories of their hardships growing up, and how they leaned into football to motivate their education and career goals.
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The brainchild of Gee-Gees quarterback Ben Maracle, a similar football camp was also hosted in Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory — Maracle’s home community — earlier this week, in partnership with the Toronto Argonauts. With that initiative now in its third year, Maracle’s aunt Janet Brant helped with connecting her nephew to bring something similar to Akwesasne, where Brant works for the Mohawk Council of Akwesasne (MCA).
“Ben contacted me a couple of years ago to talk about doing a camp here,” she said. “Because of our Indigenous background, he really wanted to bring back what he has learned, and his experiences, to Indigenous communities… just to be able to show that if you follow your dreams, you can do it.”
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MCA department of health communications officer Ryan King said he sees an interest in football in the community and was happy to host Maracle and the Redblacks.
“Akwesasne is a huge athletic community and we are involved in different sports. We are involved huge with lacrosse, huge with hockey, and we’re expanding and getting into other areas of athletics,” he said. “It’s important to cross-train in sports for our athletes… and as you can see, there’s a lot of potential for them to be football players — there’s a lot of agility and ability that’s out there (on the field) — and it’s a sport we haven’t really grown here.”
King said some participants on Thursday were entirely brand new to the sport and others had played on a team before. The event was open to all skill levels.
Community relations manager with Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group (OSEG) Marc St.Pierre said the camp gives kids in the community a chance to try something new and meet the University of Ottawa and Canadian Football League (CFL) players.
“I am very thankful for uOttawa and the team here at Akwesasne working together on this event,” said St.Pierre.
“(The program) is pretty unique… they want to expand to more of the Ontario areas and it has really been Ben who is driving that with the CFL… in Ontario, working with Ben, this is what we have created.”
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