A hockey tournament bringing more than 2,400 Indigenous youth and their families to Edmonton provided players an opportunity to represent their communities and to showcase their skills at jam-packed arenas throughout the four-day event.
The Native Hockey Alberta Championships (NHAC) took place in Edmonton from April 3 to 6 at a number of local arenas. The recent tournament marked the 30th year of the event that is now primarily hosted in Edmonton. Packed arenas and parking lots throughout the tournament shines a light on the amount of exposure the players at this tournament get.
“Highlighting Indigenous sports to me is especially big because a lot of our kids don’t get recognized when they should be,” said Julia Collins, the Métis Urban rep on the NHAC Board of Directors.
This year, 278 teams from across Alberta took part in a total of 695 games played over four days at 10 arenas. Collins said this is the tournament that kids look forward to the most.
“This tournament attracts everybody and anybody. When you’re from a small community, you have to play in your community, but here if your home reserve has a team that’s who you get to play for and a lot of kids get to make new memories and make new friends.”
Collins’ daughter, Sophia Coulomb, made her tournament debut for the under-11 (U11) girls Tsuut’ina 7 Chiefs team. (The event is open to teams from U7 to U21.) Coulomb said she didn’t know anyone on her team and ended up making new friends.
“I was really nervous to meet my team but everyone on the bench started welcoming me and my coaches and after that we all had a really good time,” she said. “I feel that everyone in their lifetime should at least get to go to a very big hockey tournament and experience this.”
The City of Edmonton’s Indigenous Relations Office sponsored $12,500 toward the event in partnership with Explore Edmonton for a total of $25,000. Explore Edmonton is estimating a $17.5 million economic impact in Edmonton from this year’s tournament based on data from the 2024 event.
Shane Sweetgrass, head coach of the U13 boys Kainai Nation team, said it’s important to make sure Indigenous kids are given the opportunity to succeed and to try and make a name for themselves in the game of hockey. He added that as a coach, it’s important to let players know you believe in them and to have a role model.
“I’m always trying to push these kids to make it to a higher level. I always say if you want to make it to that higher level and make it to the NHL or pro hockey that you need to put in the work,” said Sweetgrass.
“If you look at the NHL, it’s a white dominated sport, so having an Indigenous kid in there gives kids a role model and somebody to look up to and be able to say, ‘if he did it, I can do it.’ I think this tournament helps build confidence for our communities and for our kids.”
Sweetgrass and Collins both said that the skill level is high at this tournament every year, but the event also provides a space for community to gather and make memories together.
“In competitions like this, yes, you are competing against each nation, but when you’re coming together it shows how powerful our nations are when we come together,” said Sweetgrass. “We are showing that we can be united, there is inclusion and people see that these people really care about their communities that they’re representing.”
Tryon Simon coached the U18 boys Edmonton Northern Chiefs at the tournament. He said the event is something people look forward to every year.
“It’s awesome to see every community come here and watch good hockey and watch these kids play,” he said. “It’s awesome to see each community has come back to enjoy the laughter, enjoy the game, make friends with new parents, make friends with new kids on the ice, it’s just an awesome experience to see everyone come together at this tournament every year.”
Editor’s note: the pic at the top of the post shows a player celebrating after scoring a goal during the Native Hockey Alberta Championships tournament at the Booster Juice Recreation Centre in Terwillegar.