Epoch Lacrosse Ty Thompson becomes Epoch Lacrosse’s first endorsed athlete
Indian Country Today
Minneapolis, MN – August 12, 2014 — Two-time Division I All-American and Rochester Rattler rookie Ty Thompson has signed an agreement with Epoch Lacrosse making him the company’s first endorsed athlete. The pride of the Mohawk Nation, and the fourth all-time leading scorer at the University at Albany, will be representing Epoch Lacrosse at camps/clinics nationwide and providing Epoch’s engineers with real world feedback in the development of future products.
Thompson uses Epoch’s Dragonfly Gen.5 C30 iQ5 shaft with a Thompson i6 head tied up with Epoch’s Otter Mesh. “The first time I picked up one of Epoch’s shafts I was blown away by how perfect it felt,” Thompson said in a news release.
“Plus, Otter Mesh is one of the lightest, easiest to string and most durable pieces of mesh out there.”
He went on to say, “When it came time to decide which company I wanted to work with it wasn’t a difficult decision at all. James and everyone at Epoch treated me like family. I am really looking forward to working with Epoch and Thompson Lacrosse to not only create the most advanced lacrosse equipment on the market, but products that honor the game of lacrosse and its heritage.”
Thompson finished his career at the University at Albany with 154 goals and will go down in history as one of the most creative scorers in Division I history.
He was acquired 28th overall in the 2014 MLL collegiate draft by the Rochester Rattlers and will also be playing for Team Adrenaline Lacrosse in the LXM Pro Tour this fall with Epoch equipment.
“Ty and his family’s heritage bring an authenticity to the game that other athletes can’t provide,” said Ryan Hurley, National Sales Representative at Epoch Lacrosse. “We are really looking forward to having Ty’s input into the development of our products and working with him to help grow the game of lacrosse.”
The matchup between the Atlanta Dream and the Seattle Storm drew Schimmel fans from across the Northwest. Many chanted her name in the stands, which motivated her rivals even more.
“We were mad,” Storm forward Camille Little told The Seattle Times. “This is our home court. We wanted to play well, and we’re playing for our lives right now.”
The Dream ended up falling to the Storm by a score of 88-68. But Schimmel was still grateful for the support she received.
“This is home for me, and for everybody to come out tonight and show support, thank you guys,” Schimmel said after the game, The Oregonian reported.
“It’s come up before, and it’s the most ridiculous thing that you could ever have” Moseley said of the debate. “We just thought it would blow over. But this time it hasn’t blown over. They’ve managed to get to some people that have a voice, some people with a little power, and they’ve made it into something that it’s not. And so we decided as alumni that we were going to get out and find out for sure. I mean, we don’t want to do something that’s hurting somebody’s feelings or it’s not the right thing … so we decided to take it upon ourselves to find out.
“I personally grew up with the Alabama-Coushatta Indians down in Texas,” Moseley went on. “They were 10 minutes outside of town. So I’ve been around Indians all my life, and when I came to the Washington Redskins it was elation in the reservation. They loved the fact that I was playing for the Indians. They considered it an honor.
“And so we were really upset with the fact that they’re trying to tell us that all these years we’ve been playing under a name that was derogatory to someone,” he said. “We’ve interviewed over a thousand people. We’ve talked to over a thousand Indians. And not one, not even one has said anything about it being derogatory to them. I even went up to one of them face-to-face that I didn’t even know, and I asked him, I said point blank, ‘If I came up and I called you a Redskin would you be insulted?’ And he said, ‘Absolutely not, I take great pride in being an American Indian, being called a Redskin.’ So to me, it’s bogus.”
Later, Parker asked Moseley what he thought about the people who have said they are offended by the name.
“If it was Indians, then I would be concerned,” Moseley said. “But everyone that’s said anything to me has been a white man or a black man. No red men have said anything derogatory to me about it.”
Parker also read Moseley some dictionary definitions indicating the word could be offensive.
“You can get offended by anything,” Moseley said. “I can get offended by what somebody’s saying to me. But the Redskins, if we start changing, to me they’re attacking my amendment rights that I have. To me, the name Redskins is something that does not offend anybody. The Redskins are not being hurt, the Indians are not being hurt by this, they’re telling us that. I mean, are we going to believe the white man or are we going to believe the Indian when it comes to a subject that is supposedly affecting them? They’re the ones we need to listen to. We need to pay attention to what they’re saying, and not what some of these other people are saying, and listen to where their hearts are.”
Moseley also said that “all these reservations, almost 90 percent of them have an organization on their reservation called the Redskins, that use that as their rallying cry. Schools, almost every reservation has a school that has an organization on it called the Redskins.”
I don’t believe that’s actually true, although there certainly are several majority-Native American schools that use the name. Moseley also said some good has come out of the debate, because “we’ve found out how really deplorable” the conditions are for some Native Americans.
“And it’s ridiculous that we as Americans are letting them and making them, almost forcing them to have to live this way,” he said. “It was very much an eye-awakening trip for those of us that have not been on a reservation in a while.”
As for the suggestion that the Redskins were buying support on reservations, Moseley rejected that outright.
“The fact is that they need help and we’re giving it to them,” he said. “And we’re not trying to buy [them]. We talked to people before we even did anything for them, and we got the same answer. So that’s bogus. That doesn’t even come into the ballgame here. But we as alumni feel that it’s important that we make sure that if we’re going to follow this, and if the Redskins are going to continue to be called the Redskins, we need to make sure — and Mr. Snyder wanted to make sure — that no one is being hurt. And we found out that they’re not.
“I really get upset. I get mad, because people are trying to say that I’ve been using a racist name,” he said.
A new sports-logo T-shirt has become a hot seller in Canada and parts of the United States.
The words “Caucasians” with the image of a grinning caricature (reminiscent of the Indians’ Chief Wahoo) across the front hints at how offensive Native mascots on professional sports teams can be. The Toronto Star reported that it is a “hot fashion item” in the Ontario First Nations community.
“People’s reaction has been all positive and they see the humour in it both on and off the reserve,” Tracy Bomberry, Six Nations of the the Grand River, told the Star.
Her inspiration to wear the shirt came after learning that Ojibwa singer Ian Campeau, aka, DJ NDN of A Tribe Called Red was accused of being a “racist hypocrite” for wearing one, the paper said.
Campeau from A Tribe Called Red wears the “Caucasians” T-shirt. (cbc.ca)
According to MetroNews.Ca, an email was sent anonymously to Westfest, a popular music festival in Ottawa, Canada, where Tribe Called Red was scheduled to perform. The individual who sent the email threatened to boycott the concert because Campeau was spotted wearing the T-shirt.
“I thought how hypocritical that he would be accused of racism for wearing a shirt that turns the tables in a satirical way of how our image as native people has been misappropriated by the Cleveland Indians, Washington Redskins and the like,” Bomberry said.
Campeau, his band, and staff members of the Assembly of First Nations (AFN), including First Nations Chief, Shawn Atleo, filed a lawsuit to the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario claiming that the Amateaur football team, the Nepean Redskins, use of the R-word was racially discriminatory, and sought to quell its use. The tribunal dismissed the complaint in March, but the team changed its name to the Nepean Eagles.
Brian Kirby of Shelf Life Clothing in Cleveland said that the interest in the T-shirt “skyrocketed” after the Campeau controversy. “We have been selling a modest amount of shirts to Canada for years … but nothing like the volume of the last month,” Kirby told QMI Agency in an email interview Tuesday. “We are a mom and pop business, working day and night to make sure everyone who wants a shirt gets one.”
Kirby noticed the cultural effect of the Chief Wahoo logo in the Native community after moving to Cleveland from New York. He said that the overall interpretation of the shirt shifts. “Interpretation of the shirt ranges from a ‘reverse racism,’ ‘see how YOU like it’ intent, to a ‘see, I’m white and it doesn’t bother me to be caricatured!’ attitude,” Kirby told the Star.
The East’s Shoni Schimmel celebrates with her MVP following their 125-124 win over the West in the WNBA All-Star Game Saturday, July 19, 2014 in Phoenix, Ariz. (Photo: David KadlubowskI/azcentral sports)
Reservation-style basketball, as demonstrated by rookie Shoni Schimmel, sure ruled the WNBA All-Star Game on Saturday at US Airways Center.
And if you want an explanation of Rez Ball, well, WNBA President Laurel Richie provided a pretty good one when she told Schimmel’s dad, “She plays with such joy, freedom and liberation!”
Schimmel, who probably wouldn’t have been in the game at all without the support of Native American basketball fans, added a whole lot more faces to her following with dazzling ballhandling, long-range shooting and an All-Star-record 29 points that led the East to a 125-124 overtime victory.
Schimmel is the first rookie named MVP in the All-Star Game, but she’s been a most valuable person for Native Americans for quite a while.
Raised in eastern Oregon on the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, Schimmel’s quest to be the first athlete from her reservation to earn a NCAA Division I scholarship was the subject of a 2011 documentary “Off the Rez.”
Her following grew when she and her younger sister Jude led Louisville to the 2013 NCAA championship game before the surprising Cardinals finally fell to Connecticut.
Atlanta picked Schimmel eighth overall in the WNBA draft and she has started only two games for the Dream, averaging 7.2 points. Yet she was voted into the East starting lineup with the third-highest number of ballots in All-Star voting.
Her jersey is the biggest seller in the league.
And only the Mercury’s three players in the game, Diana Taurasi, Brittney Griner and Candice Dupree, got bigger reactions from the crowd than Schimmel.
“I don’t know if it was meant to be, but it happened,” Rick Schimmel said. “It was exciting that it was in front of so many Native Americans here. It meant a lot.”
Rick said Shoni has taken her role as an example to Native American followers seriously since she began learning those dazzling moves as a kid during her years in high school when she was coached by her mom Ceci and on to Louisville and the WNBA.
“To have the fans look up to me and be a role model not only for my siblings but the Native American fans and Native American people, it’s something that I take on my shoulders because I enjoy it,” she said. “I love being Native American, and for all these fans to come out and be here, and to vote me into this game, means a lot.
“I’m thankful they got to be here or to watch it on TV. It was awesome just to be able to go out there and play my game and have fun, and to feel free to go out there and play Rez Ball. It was a lot of fun.”
Schimmel was relatively quiet in the first half, scoring five points and handing out four assists.
But not long into the third quarter, she cut loose, hitting three shots from beyond the 3-point line in short order.
“I’m not going to lie, I saw it coming in the third quarter,” said Jude, one of 17 family members who made the trip to Phoenix. “She just kept asking for the ball and got more and more comfortable as the game went on. Playing with her for so long, and being her sister, I knew what was coming.
“I was just happy to see her so comfortable on such a big stage, playing so well.”
Rick said Shoni feels a responsibility to set an example, just as former Window Rock and Arizona State star Ryneldi Becenti did as the first Native American to play in the WNBA.
“It offers hope to the younger generation of Native Americans,” he said. “It has been such a struggle, but it gives them hope and the idea that they can go out and do anything they set their mind to.
“Shoni is living her own dream, but at the same time, she represents a lot more to a lot of people, and that’s just the blessing of it all. It’s enhancing other people’s lives and opportunities along the way.
“It’s in her core, really. It’s something she has always represented. It’s not like she comes out and thinks about it that much, but you walk out and see a lot of Native faces, I think in anybody’s mind they’re thinking, ‘Wow, they’re here to see me.’
“I would freeze up, and it’s easy to do that. But she doesn’t. She embraces it. It’s in her heart and something she was born with.”
She was born with it on a reservation, where basketball is a horizontal game more than a vertical one. Where creativity is king and playing with fear will only get you beat.
“Rez Ball is kind of an open-court game, where you feed off of each other,” Jude explained. “It’s free-flowing and fun. It’s more about a feel for the game than thinking about it. It’s not very structured, but it’s a thriller!
“It fits perfectly for an All-Star Game. Ever since we were younger, I’ve seen those kinds of moves, probably a lot more of them, too. But to see her do it on the big stage, I had goosebumps. I normally don’t cheer, but I was cheering.”
Why not? On the WNBA’s biggest stage, Rez Ball ruled.
A foundation controlled by Washington NFL team owner Daniel Snyder, shown here on the field before a game last season, has offered to build a skate park for an Indian tribe located in Arizona and California. Snyder’s team name, defined as a slur in the dictionary, is under fire from various groups, including American Indians. The tribe has not yet decided whether it will accept the offer. / Brad Mills, USA TODAY Sports
The Fort Yuma Quechan (Kwatsan) Tribe listened to an offer Wednesday from Washington NFL team owner Daniel Snyder’s foundation to build a memorial skate park on its reservation, according to tribal member Kenrick Escalanti, who attended two meetings with foundation representatives at the tribal administration building on the Arizona-California border.
“They told us it wouldn’t cost us a thing, that we wouldn’t have to say anything and we wouldn’t have to support” the franchise’s controversial team name, Escalanti told USA TODAY Sports. “They said they were not asking for an endorsement or a photo op, they just wanted to help. But if you know their track record, we didn’t really believe that. â?¦ We know bribe money when we see it. ”
Escalanti, president of Kwatsan Media Inc., said his organization, which is leading a drive to build a skate park, has turned down the offer from the team’s Original Americans Foundation. Tribal administrator Vernon Smith said the tribe has not reached a decision on whether to ask more questions of the foundation or to leave the offer on the table.
“We just listened politely and said we’d think about it,” Smith said. “They told us there would be no stipulations, but I have heard otherwise from other tribes who have received things from them.”
The foundation was represented by executive director Gary Edwards and director Karl Schreiber, plus a park designer, according to Escalanti. “They showed us digital renderings of a skate park and what struck me was the designs were all in burgundy and gold,” Escalanti said. Those are the colors of the Washington NFL team.
The team issued this statement from the foundation: “Tribal leaders from the Fort Yuma Quechan (Kwatsan) Tribe invited and met with staff from the Original Americans Foundation to discuss projects that needed funding in Yuma. The conversation centered around eight projects that the tribe requested assistance for projects that improved their quality of life and at no time during our on-site discussion did the tribe object to working with our foundation.
“We are very proud of the more than 145 projects in partnership with 40 tribes that we have worked on and will continue to do what we can for those in need. We will maintain our foundation’s policy of not disclosing our private conversations with tribal leaders.”
A team spokesman said a statement from the foundation would be released later today.
Escalanti’s description of the two meetings, which together lasted nearly an hour, open a window on the nonprofit announced by Snyder in March to help Native American causes. Foundation reps told the tribe that they have 147 projects lined up involving about 40 tribes across the country. Escalanti said the reps added that about 100 tribes, including his, have participated in a survey concerning their needs.
Escalanti said no dollar amount was mentioned, but he said the budget for the planned Quechan Memorial Skatepark is $250,000 and “they offered to build it, like a blank check.” Kwatsan Media Inc., a nonprofit that runs a radio station, is accepting donations for the skate park, which will be dedicated to suicide prevention in Native youth.
“When we told them the skate park would be dedicated to fallen Native youth, you could see their eyes open up big, like they could smell good PR,” Escalanti said. “And that really irritated me.”
The first meeting with tribal leaders, including three council members, lasted about 20 minutes and the second with Kwatsan Media about 30 minutes, according to Escalanti, who attended both. Smith said he was able to attend part of the first meeting.
One council member asked foundation reps why the team cares about Native American causes now, Escalanti said. “Edwards said they always cared and this is not an issue of the (team) name,” Escalanti said. “He said the reason it comes up now is the team and the NFL have a diversity policy and they are trying to live by that.”
The foundation representatives said they have helped tribes already with backhoes, jackets and boots, according to Escalanti, who said the reps “kept name-dropping tribe after tribe, and president after president, even though they were promising us we could have the skate park and nobody had to know” where the money came from.
Edwards addressed the team name issue, according to Escalanti: “He said he is a proud ‘redskin’ and that the controversy is a non-issue. He said it is inaccurate to call it a slur. He said the name stands for pride, courage and intelligence. And he said people who oppose the name are part of a white, liberal agenda.”
Escalanti said that Edwards made an impassioned plea for Native American strength against white aggression: “The last words he said to us were, ‘We need to get stronger, because if we don’t, they will annihilate us.'”
COMMERCE CITY, Colo. – The Iroquois Nationals weathered the storm, and took it to the Sharks.
After a two-hour weather delay on Monday night at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park, Lyle Thompson and company scored four straight goals out of the break to take control of what was a tie game when the teams headed for shelter, and the Iroquois beat Australia 12-10 in a Blue Division pool play tilt that ended ten minutes short of midnight.
Lyle Thompson scored four goals, including one after the delay to put the Nationals up 10-8 after Jeremy Thompson broke the knotted affair in the waning seconds of the third quarter.
Severe weather delayed the game with 2:37 left in the third quarter and the score tied at 8. Heavy rain, wind and lightening arrived around 9:25 p.m. local time and didn’t leave for more than 90 minutes, after which the teams had a brief warmup and went off and running before a small, but vocal crowd.
The Iroquois went up 12-8, and Australian attackman Nathan Stiglich scored two straight to cut into the lead with less than two minutes left. But the Nationals won the ensuing faceoff on a violation and ran out the rest of the clock.
Iroquois faceoff man Vaughn Harris won 11-of-17 faceoffs, and Jeremy Thompson went 5-for-7 while Australia goalie Tom Vickery finished with 13 saves.
Pool play concludes Tuesday. The Iroquois, who improved to 3-1 in the Blue Division, plays the United States (4-0) at 5 p.m. local time, and Australia (2-2) takes on Canada (3-1) in the final Blue Division tilt before elimination games begin. The top two teams in the division earn byes to the semifinal round, held Thursday.
An overwhelming majority of Democrats have said that the Redskins should change their name: Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, 49 US Senators and President Obama included. Now, add to the list U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.
During an appearance on ABC’s This Week, Holder was asked if the name should change.
“I’m going to speak very personally now,” Holder said. “The name ought to be changed. It’s an offensive name. The Redskins, that organization is a great one. It’s a team with a storied history that has huge amounts of support in Washington, D.C., and in the 21st century they could increase their fan base, increase their level of support, if they did something that from my perspective that is so obviously right.”
Despite the growing opposition to the name, one group of ‘Redskins’ fans recently pushed back on the name change. Some Virginia legislators have created a “Redskins Pride Caucus,” and say that the name should not be changed because to them, it’s about “community unity,” rather than anything offensive.
Since the start of the WNBA season, Shoni Schimmel has been one to watch.
Last week, she was officially named to the WNBA All-Star team earning a starting position for the Eastern Conference, a rarity for any rookie.
Now, the WNBA is reporting that Schimmel has the leagues most popular jersey, according to sales from WNBAStore.com that were tallied from the start of the 2014 regular season.
Her popularity with the Atlanta Dream also helped the team claim the No. 1 spot on the best-selling team merchandise list for the first time, WNBA.com reported. Schimmel is also among several players from the most popular jerseys list who are headed to the WNBA All-Star game including, Skylar Diggins, Elena Delle Donne, Maya Moore, Candace Parker, Brittney Griner and Diana Taurasi.
On Twitter, Jude Schimmel congratulated her sister:
Click here for a list of the other top selling jerseys.
The WNBA All Star Game begins on July 19 and will be televisied on ESPN.
If you’re not busy, you might want to drive, fly, walk or crawl (kidding) to Phoenix, Arizona to catch Shoni Schimmel play in her first WNBA All-Star Game.
According to the Courier-Journal, Schimmel, who was the only rookie chosen to start, received the most votes of any Eastern conference guard and the third-most of any player in the league with 25,601 votes. Maya Moore of the Minnesota Lynx received 28,389 votes and Elena Delle Donne of the Chicago Sky received 26,129 votes.
Schimmel also got more votes than some of the biggest names in the WNBA, including Candace Parker, Brittney Griner, Skylar Diggins and Diana Taurasi, and she’ll start the All-Star game even though she’s started only two of 18 games for the Dream, the paper reported.
“For the fans to go out and vote, I definitely have to give it to them. For them to have my back and sit there and vote for me every day is just something they took pride in,” Schimmel told theAssociated Press. “They obviously want to see me in the game, so for them to do that means a lot to me.”
The WNBA All-Star Game will take place at US Airways Center in Phoenix on Saturday, July 19, and will be televised on ESPN, with tip-off at 3:30 p.m. ET (12:30 p.m. PT).
