2008 North American Indigenous Games
The 2008 North American Indigenous Games will be held from Aug. 3-10 in Cowichan Valley, B.C., and Manitoba plans to send a team of 500 athletes, coaches, managers and training staff to compete in this most prestigious competition.
There are 16 sports at the 2008 NAIG, but in order to best use the resources available and allow 500 participants to travel to the Games, Manitoba is participating in only 12 sports – Archery, Athletics (track and field), Box Lacrosse, Soccer, Badminton, Golf, Softball, Canoeing, Volleyball, Basketball, Baseball and Swimming. Manitoba will not compete in boxing, wrestling, tae-kwon-do or rifle shooting.
However, Manitoba will send a bantam female team – that’s 13-14-year-old girls – and one of the players who earned a spot on the team was Richard, the 12-year-old daughter of the team’s head coach Justin Richard.
At first, no one in Manitoba expected a problem allowing a 12-year-old to play with 13-14-year-olds as long as the young woman was physically ready to play. During tryouts it was clear that Raine Richard could handle herself playing against older children.
And besides, in almost every case presented to a national or international sports governing body, allowing children to play “up” or with older kids has always been permitted.
“We all know that older kids can’t play ‘down’ against younger kids, that wouldn’t be fair,” said MASRC executive director Kurt Kelly, who pleaded Richard’s case before the NAIG Council. “But every where we looked, younger children ciould play against older children if they were capable.
“In this case, one of our best coaches had decided to keep a 12-year-old on his team. We couldn’t see a problem.”
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