Local AAA player featured on national sports’ broadcast speaks out against racist taunts
Carson Shawana, a stalwart defenseman for the AAA Sudbury Nickel City Wolves team this past hockey season, was a natural pick for the First Nation Elites in a recent off-season tournament in Quebec City. However, during the event there were several incidents where several, racist taunts were focused on the team. The incident, caught TSN’s ear, when such disgusting epithets like, “team of sauvages” (savages), video clips, were posted on social media. Carson was interviewed on the sports mogul station and eloquently explained how these comments made towards him and his team must have felt. How can supposedly, mature adults, be perceived by anyone, let alone elementary, school aged kids come away with anything less than a scathing perception of the social dynamics that they live in?
Manitoulin Elementary Track and Field Championships
The full, two days last week could only be called the overall, best spring conditions in recent memory for the highly contested Manitoulin Elementary Track and Field Championships. The temperatures and humidity were ideal on the field and 800m events on Thursday and only slightly elevated, aggravating circumstances (with increased heat and humidity for the all-track, portion, part of the championships, Friday.
When the couplet of competition days were complete, Little Current’s Coyotes were crown as the overall champions with total points reading: in first LCPS with 211.5 points, C.C. McLean earned 161 tallies, CMPS and Assiginack each took 112.5 points tie for third.
Taking into account each schools’ attendance the per-capita kudos were awarded as follows: First, C.C. McLean, 1.27 pts/eligible student; second, Assiginack, 1.01; and third, LCPS, 0.83.
In this extremely notable category, the following need to be recognized as new Manitoulin elementary record holders, who have surpassed a veritable list of amazing Island athletes. Starting with Noah Holmes of Assiginack who obliterated the 10-yearold boys’ shot put record by 1.93 metres to set the new standard at 8.69 metres! Not to be outdone was CMPS’s Sadie Bridgeman who set a huge new target in the 10-year-old girls’ standing long jump with a 17 cm improvement to move the tape out to 2.06m!
In the 11-year-old girls’ high jump, Ava Assinewai from Central Manitoulin added to her elementary track records to include a 1.36m launch! In the 13-year-old girls’ high jump, Sophie Heitkamp of C.C. McLean established an amazing, new mark of ten centimeters above the previous to raise the bar to 1.50 m! On top of that, she also lowered the bar in her 200m sprint to an amazing 30.79!
In the steadily lowering 11-year-old girls’ 1500m mark, Maren Kasunich of Lakeview dropped the bar another five seconds to 5:40 thanks to all of her extra, extra-curricular training!
In the age division, medal competition there was an amazing tight race for the top three spots across the four male and female categories resulting in several ties amongst medal recipients. Starting with the 9 and under girls’ division the medal winners included: 9-year-old girls’ winner with a perfect 12 points, hats off to CMPS Eagle Mya Balfe. In second was Mya Debassige (8 pts) and Damara Wassegijig earned the bronze medal with her 7 pts. In the boys’ category, Greyson Case was first with 11 points, Kohyn Eshkawkogan was a close second with 10 pts and then third place was owned by Jack Carter with 9 points for an LCPS sweep.
In the 10-year-old girls’ division, in first was Alex Wilson-Zegil with 11 points; second Tessa Merryless, 9 points in second; and a close finish for third was between Sadie Bridgeman (CMPS) and Zee Toulouse (Lakeview) with 8 pts apiece. In 10-year-old boys’ competition, Rhyis Arthurs took the gold with 10.5 pts, Cody Campbell was in silver with 10 pts and then Jack Koehler was bestowed bronze with 8 pts.
The 11-year-old girls’ was won by Brooke Gibeault (APS), earning 10 pts, and a tie for second took place between Maren Kasunich (Lakeview) and Ava Assinewai (CMPS) with 9 pts and a close third was from Annie Balfe (CMPS) earning 8 pts.
The 11-year-old boys’ division was taken by C. C. McLean’s Malachi Joseph, 10 pts; LCPS’s John Michael Taggart, tying Braydan Hayden for second; then in third, Brodie Pennie, 8 pts.
Topping the 12-year-old girls’ division was Delaney Bridgeman with a perfect 12 points, in second was a super-close second in Aysia Debassige and then the bronze going to Shaolin Roy.
The 12-year-old boys’ category was aced by Alan Wilkin with a stellar 12 pts, 2nd was Billy Biederman, 8 pts, and 3rd was Mason Leighton, 7 pts.
Finally, in their last year before post-secondary is the 13-plus category. In the girls’, in first was the amazing talent of C. C. McLean’s Sophie Heitkamp with a perfect score of 12 pts. In silver was LCPS’s Autumn Deschesne, 9 pts, and then Wasse Abin’s Victoria Trudeau, 8 pts. In the 13-year-old boys’ it was Wasse Abin’s Lattrell Peltier and C. C. McLean ‘s Trent Bell in gold with 9 pts, Assiginack’s William Fournier second with 8 pts and 3rd Sam Assinewai, 6 pts.
Rainbow District School Board Meet
In a school board that captures a huge swath of Northern Ontario, Manitoulin athletes were once again atop the individual and aggregate totals at the recent Gibson Memorial meet at the Laurentian track in Sudbury for the RDSB honors.
Tyke Boys: Jack Carter (LCPS), Ethan Witty (CCM) and Kohyn Eshkawkogan (LCPS) took three of the top six spots in High Jump.
Jack and Ethan were first and second. It was a great display of high jumping, highlighted by Jack Carter reaching his personal best of 1.21m to take gold.
Kohyn Eshkawkogan took a close 2nd in Standing Long Jump and Running Long Jump. Greyson Case was right behind him and took 3rd in Standing Long Jump. Jack Carter placed 4th in Running Long Jump.
Saraya Eshkawkogan finished third in Triple Jump and 2nd in Running Long Jump in atom girls.
The LCPS Tyke Boys also finished second overall as a team.
A good sport is good for sports.
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