Sports Archives - Page 46 of 53

NWIC’s big athletics fundraiser tees off soon

Golfers will have a chance to win Seattle Seahawks tickets with sideline passes

Last year’s Northwest Indian College Big Drive for Education Golf Scramble garnered $19,000 and this year’s goal is to raise $25,000. Photo courtesy of NWIC

Source: NWIC

On Friday September 6, Northwest Indian College (NWIC) Foundation will host the 11^th Annual Big Drive for Education Golf Scramble, the college’s biggest annual athletics fundraiser that supports student athletes and athletic programs.

The scramble will begin with a 1 p.m. shotgun start, in which all golfers tee off at different holes at the same time. The event will take place at the Sudden Valley Golf & Country Club on Lake Whatcom in Bellingham.

Last year’s event garnered more than $19,000 and this year’s goal is to raise $25,000. The Golf Scramble provides financial resources, such as athletic scholarships, for NWIC student athletes, and supports the development of the college’s health and fitness programs.

NWIC sports include: women’s volleyball, men’s basketball, women’s basketball, co-ed softball, cross country, canoeing, tennis, and golf.

Registration rates are $800 for teams of four golfers or $200 for individual registrants who would like to be placed on teams. Costs include registration, carts, green fees, range balls, dinner and raffle tickets.

This year’s Golf Scramble will include a silent auction and a raffle with prizes that include Seattle Seahawks tickets with sideline passes. Players will also have an opportunity to win the “hole-in-one” car.

Winning teams will receive the President’s cup trophy and NWIC Golf Scramble jackets. There will be a jackets awarded to the top women’s team as well as medals to the winners of the side games.

Sponsorship opportunities for this year’s Golf Scramble are:

Premiere: $10,000

Reserved table and seating for eight at golf awards banquet
Name listing and logo in promotional literature
Golf registration for two teams of four (eight golfers)
Signage with logo at the event
Honorable mention throughout the event

Soaring Eagle: $5,000

Reserved table and seating for eight at golf awards banquet
Name listing and logo in promotional literature
Golf registration for two teams of four (eight golfers)
Signage with logo at the event
Honorable mention throughout the event

Hawk: $2,500

Reserved table and seating for four at golf awards banquet
Name listing in promotional literature
Golf registration for one team (four golfers)
Signage at the event
Honorable mention throughout the event

Birdie: $1,250

Reserved table and seating for eight at golf awards banquet
Name listing and in promotional literature
Golf registration for on team (four golfers)
Signage at the event
Honorable mention throughout the event

Tee Sponsors

$500: Name listed in promotional materials, signage at tee and green
$250: Signage at tee and green
$150: Signage at tee OR green

For sponsorship and registration information or for questions, email mariahd@nwic.edu or call (360)392-4217.

Fun time at UNM

Begay Foundation unites kids with Lobo women

By Ken Sickenger / Journal Staff Writer on Jul. 23, 2013

Lobo freshman Lauren Newman, center, shares a smile with Keshaun Christian, right, Wicanhpi-Winyan Echohawk, center left, and Jesslyn Sandoval during a passing drill at Monday’s basketball clinic. (adria malcolm/for the journal)

We’re going to need another bus.

Notah Begay III Foundation personnel came to that realization early Monday as they prepared to travel from San Felipe Pueblo to the University of New Mexico.

NB3F had arranged to send a group of Native American youngsters to UNM for a two-hour clinic with the Lobo women’s basketball team.

The turnout exceeded expectations.

“We expected around 30 kids and ended up with 90,” said Stephanie Gabbert, the foundation’s director of soccer. “We had to arrange an extra bus, but that’s a good thing. The more kids we expose to something like this the better.”

The clinic provided many of the youngsters a first look at UNM and its basketball facilities. They rotated through various basketball and nutrition stations operated by Lobo players.

Enthusiasm ran high on both sides.

“It’s awesome,” said 13-year-old Evan Valencia. “(UNM players) got us running and they’ve been really nice. We’ve never had anything like this before. It’s fun.”

Monday’s clinic served to further the mission of NB3F. Established by Albuquerque golfer Notah Begay III, the foundation seeks to combat childhood obesity and type 2 diabetes among Native Americans by promoting education and active lifestyle choices.

The foundation’s website, nb3foundation.org, cites numerous studies reporting that childhood obesity and diabetes are more common among Native Americans than any other ethnic group.

The Santa Ana Pueblo-based foundation operates golf and soccer programs for Native American youth. NB3F also coordinates a variety of summer camps to introduce youngsters to other sports and activities.

With that in mind, Gabbert reached out to Lobo women’s basketball coach Yvonne Sanchez and men’s soccer coach Jeremy Fishbein. Both quickly agreed to hold clinics.

Lobo men’s soccer players and coaches visited NB3F’s soccer facility at San Felipe last summer and will host a clinic Wednesday. Monday’s women’s basketball clinic was a first-time event and proved a big-hit with the 90 boys and girls who attended. The campers ranged in age from 7 to 13.

Begay, now a network golf commentator for NBC, was unable to attend Monday’s clinic. His brother, Clint Begay, who helps operate NB3F, came away impressed.

“The foundation’s main goal is to get kids active,” he said. “When we can do that and get them outside the reservation, show them something new, that’s a big plus. You can tell by their faces, these kids are happy to be here.”

Lobo players clearly enjoyed the experience, too. Juniors Antiesha Brown and Ebony Walker operated a station emphasizing defense and lateral movement. They also made younsters elevate for high fives and celebrate imaginary three-point-play opportunities.

“Basketball is really good for younger kids,” Brown said, “so you have to make it fun. Eb and I like to do follow-the-leader drills and just be ridiculous to keep the kids entertained. When they have fun, it’s fun for us, too.”

UNM players largely ran Monday’s show because Sanchez and her assistant coaches were out of town recruiting. Women’s basketball vidoegrapher and former player Amy Beggin oversaw the clinic.

“It’s a cool opportunity for our players,” Beggin said, “because they love working with kids. It’s also nice because a lot of these kids have never been to UNM before. This gives them a chance to see it and maybe dream about coming here someday.”

Thirteen-year-old Ilai Sandoval admitted he was nervous about coming to the Davalos Center. Sandoval has been participating in NB3F activities for a year and now serves as a youth assistant.

“Everyone was happy we got to come here,” he said. “My cousin’s been asking me, ‘When’s the camp? When’s the camp?’ A lot of kids couldn’t wait.

“I was a little nervous because I’ve never been here before but it’s nice. I bet everyone will want to come back (Wednesday) for soccer.”

Flag raised for North American Indigenous Games 2014

BY KERRY BENJOE,

LEADER-POST JULY 23, 2013

The City of Regina made history when it raised the 2014 North American Indigenous Games flag on Monday.

For the first time in the games’ history, the host city raised the organization’s flag at city hall, also proclaiming this week NAIG Week.

“It’s a historic occasion for the host society to be able to raise (the NAIG) flag and create that awareness to the broader community that the games are one year away,” Regina 2014 NAIG CEO Glen Pratt said. “It’s also a real opportunity to ensure that our partnership with the City of Regina is working for everybody.”

Next year, an estimated 6,000 coaches and athletes will call Regina home for a week. NAIG organizers are gearing up to make it the best games in history.

“In the past, the games have chosen their own themes,” Pratt said. “We want to put on the best games that we could for our athletes to experience, and one of the ways to do that was to raise the bar, so the board has chosen the theme Raising the Bar.”

NAIG Week kicked off with a pipe ceremony that included Mayor Michael Fougere, a grand entry, powwow dance performances and an official flag-raising ceremony in the city hall courtyard.

The flag now flies

alongside the Metis flag, the Treaty 4 flag, the municipal flag, the Saskatchewan provincial flag and the Canadian flag.

Fougere said it was important to celebrate the games and to show the rest of the province as well as everyone in North America that Regina is ready for the games.

“Our First Nation and Metis community are very integral to our society and we wanted to show that the City of Regina and our citizens are prepared for this,” he said. “This is a coming together of different cultures, different traditions of indigenous people from across North America. This is very unique for us. We have not seen this before.”

During NAIG Week, Regina youths will have a chance to find out more about the games.

“We have created NAIG sports spots,” Pratt said. “It is an opportunity to teach our inner-city youth about the 15 sports involved with the games to get them trying them out, interested in them and just exposing them to all the sports so they have a better understanding of the sports available to them.”

He said in order to put on the games, about 3,000 volunteers will be needed. A volunteer drive is scheduled to take place this fall.

More information on Regina 2014 NAIG is available at www.regina2014naig.com.

kbenjoe@leaderpost.com

Native boxers set sights on 2020 Olympics

071113box1 — (Courtesy photo).
TOP: San Carlos Apache boxer Tommy Nosie (left) spars with Nico Martinez of the Menominee Indian Boxing Club of Wisconsin during the 2013 All Indian Boxing Championships in San Carlos, Ariz.

By Quentin Jodie, Navajo Times

The host city of the 2020 Summer Olympic Games has yet to be determined but Greg Parsons is thinking big.

As the promoter of the 2013 All Indian Boxing Championships, Parsons is prophesying that we’ll have a Native American boxer competing in those games.

“I am looking at some of our 15- and 16-year-old kids,” Parsons said. “Some of them competed at the JO (Junior Olympics) this year and they placed real high.”

Of course that conversation depends on what happens to the fate of the boxing climate within the Native American community.

Parson said in years past, the AIBC has attracted as much as 90 fighters back in his heydays. But last year the event only drew in 32 boxers, which featured only four championship bouts.

This year, however, the numbers were a bit healthier as 52 boxers showed up, which was held at the Apache Gold Casino and Resort in San Carlos, Ariz., on July 4-6.

“We need consistency,” Parson said. “Sometimes this event goes away for one year and it comes back another. It’s really about consistency because for some Native kids this is the biggest tournament they look forward to.

“If this is not around they could lose interest for a whole year,” he added. “If we can keep this going I am sure we can get someone to the Olympics. We just need to so support them and send them places and give them the best fights we can. Maybe we can schedule some international bouts.”

071113box2 — Yoruba Moreu Jr., (left) of New Mexico sustains a right hand punch to the head from Jameel Maldonado of Arizona in San Carlos, Ariz.

Parsons said it’s imperative to keep the AIBC event ongoing and in the future he would like for the event to be move to other sites.

“I believe it will be back in San Carlos next year but we would like to spread this around as much as we can,” he said.

At this year’s event, Parsons said they ended up with 54 fights including 17 tournament bouts.

“I think we did pretty good,” he said. “We got teams from Canada, Wisconsin, Oregon, Utah, Washington and South Dakota.”

The Wisconsin team, which was represented by the Menominee Indian Boxing Club, brought in eight fighters ranging from 9 to 14 years old.

“Everyone got a ‘W’ this weekend,” said Jason Komanenkin, who co-serves as the MIBC coach along with Arnold Peters and Gerald Wayka Jr. “We are very happy with the results. We got eight national Native American champions.”

One of those fighters is Leon Peters, who went 2-0 in the 110-pound category in the 11-12 age group.

“My coaches told me what to do,” said Peters, while adding that his right hand is his best punch.

Last December, Peters also went 2-0 and won the National Silver Gloves Championship in Kansas City, Mo., after qualifying in a regional meet in South Dakota.

“I won my first match by a split decision,” Peters said. “I drove him with my right hand and he started running (away from me.) I practically chased him down.”

In his next match, he stopped his opponent with a TKO in the second round to win the title.

“I was proud that I brought the title home to my tribe,” he said.

According to his dad, Arnold Peters, his son prepared for that tournament by sparring with kids older than him.

“He’s big for his age,” Arnold Peters said of his son. “In a lot of tournaments we went to the normal-sized kids would not fight him so we moved him up. He lost a lot of those fights and his spirits was down but I just told him to keep going.”

Besides Leone Peters, the MIBC also got one of its fighters to compete at a national event as Antonio Makhimetas boxed at the 2013 USA Boxing Junior Olympic National Championships in Mobile, Ala., two weeks ago.

“I think he beat the best 145-pounder in the country,” Komanenkin said, “but the judges didn’t think so.”

According to Arnold Peters, they started their gym four months ago as a way to get kids off the streets.

“We got 16 kids in our basement but we’re doing our best to keep the kids off drugs and alcohol,” Peters said.

The former boxing pro said it’s a shame that they have those issues on the reservation but a lot of people in the community are thanking them for the service they provide.

“They like what we’re doing,” he said. “We don’t have much but we’re taking what we have and turning them into champs.”

– See more at: http://www.navajotimes.com/sports/2013/0713/071113box.php#sthash.0xP8IHCi.dpuf

Navajo Code Talker Will Be Honored at MLB All-Star Game

Source: Indian Country Today Media Network

Veterans will be honored at the MLB All-Star Game to be played July 16 at Citi Field in Queens, New York (despite the home club New York Mets offending American Indians this week). And one of those will be Navajo Code Talker David Patterson. He will represent the Los Angeles Dodgers at the event.

By fan selection through a People magazine effort called Tribute to Heroes, Patterson and 29 other vets, one per MLB team, were voted in and will be honored at the baseball game. Meet all the vets here.

Here is the biography of Patterson provided by People.

David E. Patterson Sr. of Rio Rancho, N.M., is among an elite group of marines who helped create the only unbroken code in modern military history. As one of the Navajo Code Talkers, David and other Navajos coded and decoded classified military dispatches during WWII using a code derived from their native tongue. The Code Talkers took part in every Marine assault, from Guadalcanal in 1942 to Okinawa in 1945, including the Marshall Islands, Kwajalein, Iwo Jima, and Saipan, and doubtless helped win the war. After he was discharged, David, now 90, went to college in Oklahoma and New Mexico, becoming a social worker. He married and raised his family on the reservation in Shiprock, N.M., and worked for the Navajo Nation’s Division of Social Services until retiring in 1987. He was awarded the Silver Congressional Medal of Honor in 2001 and up until last year volunteered in a Shiprock school on the Navajo Reservation as a

Mets Alter Event, Upsetting American Indian Group

By Scott Cacciola, The New York Times

It has not been an easy season for the Mets, who are lurching toward the All-Star break with a losing record. Opposition has come in the form of hard-throwing pitchers, mounting injuries and marathon-length games, but the team suddenly finds itself facing heat from an unexpected source: an American Indian organization.

When the Mets approached the American Indian Community House, a New York-based nonprofit organization, in March about helping to organize a Native American Heritage Day, the proposal struck members of the group as a good opportunity to celebrate their involvement in the community. A date was selected — July 25 — and they began to plan pregame festivities that would include traditional dancing and singing outside Citi Field.

But there was a glitch, as far as the Mets were concerned: they were scheduled to host the Atlanta Braves that day. So in the past week, concerned that such activities might be interpreted by the Braves organization as a form of protest over its nickname, the Mets drastically reduced the day’s activities: no singing, no dancing. And now there won’t be any American Indians, either.

On Monday, the A.I.C.H. pulled out of the event, citing frustration with the Mets for thwarting months of planning. The team has removed the event from its online schedule of activities.

“Being a nonprofit in the city, we’re not in the business of making enemies,” said Kevin Tarrant, the deputy director of the A.I.C.H., which describes itself as an organization that aims to “cultivate awareness, understanding and respect” for thousands of American Indians who live in New York City. “This whole thing wasn’t even our idea. But it just feels like we’re being marginalized again within our own community.”

A Mets spokesman said the team “opted to forgo the group sale in this case as our multicultural days and nights are celebratory versus political in nature.”

The Mets host multicultural events throughout the season as a form of community outreach. During the first week of August, for example, the team will stage Irish Heritage Night and Taiwan Day.

Tarrant said his group originally hoped to hold the festivities in early June so that the game would coincide with an area powwow, a traditional American Indian gathering. But with the Mets on a road trip that week, the group suggested July 25 as another option. It was a 12:10 p.m. game, Tarrant said, which meant more children were likely to attend. Also, another powwow was planned for the following weekend in Queens.

That the Mets were scheduled to face the Braves that afternoon was coincidental, Tarrant said, though the group was not so naïve as to ignore the political overtones. Various groups have criticized the Braves for their use of American Indian imagery, in particular the team’s Tomahawk Chop chant.

“It wasn’t like we were planning to protest anything,” Tarrant said. “We just thought it would be great to show natives in a positive light — that we’re human beings, and we’re not from 300 years ago. We’re visible.” He added: “It was a win-win situation. We’d be supporting the Mets, the Braves and Major League Baseball.”

On March 27, a Mets ticket sales representative, who was working with the A.I.C.H. on the event, sent an e-mail requesting that the group draft a letter explaining why it had chosen a Braves game. The Mets’ foremost concern, at least at the time, appeared to be squarely on the sensibilities of the American Indian community.

“It is good to inform others that the Braves do not make a profit off of the sale of the game,” the Mets representative wrote in the e-mail, “and no money would be going to support their organization.” She attached an invoice for payment.

As part of the deal, the A.I.C.H. agreed to pay a $2,000 deposit to cover roughly 15 percent of the cost for a block of 500 tickets, which the group would then help sell. In exchange, the A.I.C.H. would be free to stage pregame festivities outside Citi Field, including traditional dancing and singing as fans made their way to the stadium from the subway station. Rick Chavolla, the A.I.C.H.’s education and development officer, said the performances were largely intended to raise awareness for Native Americans living in the city.

“Not a lot of people invite us to step on a great stage like that,” Chavolla said. “We were really looking forward to it.”

The Mets also agreed to print 500 T-shirts (proposed design: the team logo adorned by feathers) and to broadcast two public-service announcements for the group on the stadium’s video boards.

Tarrant said the A.I.C.H. soon decided to make the game the centerpiece of an annual Native American Week, with events across the city like panel discussions and dance performances. NativeOne Institutional Trading, an American Indian-owned broker dealer based in New York, signed on as a co-sponsor. Tiani Osborn, a managing member at NativeOne, said the logistics required “months of planning.”

As for the game, the A.I.C.H. began to promote it in early April. In an e-mail to the Indian Country Today Media Network, the group pitched the event as a “great opportunity to educate the public about the stereotypes professional sports teams continue to promote through logos, mascots and fan traditions, such as the ‘tomahawk chop.’ ” But if Mets officials harbored concerns with that type of language over the coming months, they chose not to express them publicly.

It was not until July 1 that the Mets contacted the A.I.C.H. to inform the group of significant changes to Native American Heritage Day: no public-service announcements of any kind, and no pregame festivities outside the stadium. The group could still attend the game and do some fund-raising, but that would be the extent of its involvement.

The Mets, Osborn said, suddenly seemed “only to be interested in holding a Native American Heritage Day without the culture.”

Last Wednesday, a member of the Mets’ group sales department e-mailed the A.I.C.H. in response to a series of questions from the group, which sought an explanation.

“It was brought to my attention that we need to be sensitive to the Braves being a partner MLB team and can’t put them in a situation for a potentially negative environment to be brought upon them,” the Mets official wrote. “I know this is not the plan, but sometimes people come to events under different agendas than expected. I’m not referring to [A.I.C.H.] or any of the organizations involved, but more about unknown groups that may want to change the perception of the event.”

The Mets official wrote in the e-mail that the Braves had nothing to do with the decision. The Mets later proposed two alternate dates: Aug. 8 against the Colorado Rockies and Aug. 25 against the Detroit Tigers. Tarrant said the A.I.C.H. had already planned a full week of events around the game scheduled for July 25.

On Monday, the A.I.C.H. decided to call the whole thing off and ask the Mets for a refund.

“We’re not trying to be overly sensitive,” Chavolla said, “but it seems like we fall into this type of thing a lot. We’re led to get enthusiastic about something, and then it’s like, ‘Oh, never mind.’ It’s disappointing, but it sort of amplifies a pattern of what we’ve been dealing with for hundreds of years.”

Seahawks fans aim to break record for crowd noise in home opener

John Boyle, The Herald

Seahawks fans have long considered themselves one of the loudest fanbases in sports, now they’re out to prove it. A fan group known as Volume 12 has applied with Guinness World Records to measure the sound levels at Seattle’s Sept. 15 home opener against San Francisco. The goal is to break the Guinness record for “loudest crowd roar at a sports stadium” which was set in 2011 at a soccer match in Turkey.

In that game between rivals Galatasary and Fenerbahce, crowd noises were recorded at 131.76 decibels. Of course that doesn’t necessarily make that the loudest game in sports history, just the loudest with Guinness on hand to certify the achievement (is being loud an achievement?).

According to Seahawks.com, fans produce noise levels of 112 decibels (I’m sure the fact that it’s 112 and not 111 or 113 is purely a coincidence, right?), which if accurate means Seahawks fans have their work cut out for them come Sept.

We know that CenutryLink Field and the fans who fill it are extremely loud. This fall we’ll apparently find out if they are world record loud.

Schimmel Family to Kick Off National UNITY Conference in July

WOODLAND HILLS, CALIFORNIA – Attendees of the UNITY conference next month will see and hear firsthand one of the most inspiring role models in Indian country as Jude Schimmel addresses them.

Jude Schimmel averaged 5.7 points per game and lead the team in assists with 106.

Jude Schimmel is a star on the basketball court and in the university classroom.

Louisville Cardinals super sixth woman, sophomore guard Jude Schimmel, who won the Elite 89 award for the 2013 NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Championship, will kick off the National UNITY Conference along with her parents Rick and Ceci Schimmel to be held in the greater Los Angeles area from July 12-16, 2013.

The Elite 89 is presented to the student athlete with the highest cumulative grade point average participating in the NCAA championship finals.

Schimmel, who is majoring in sociology, currently carries a 3.737 grade point average, which is the highest GPA among all players in the NCAA women’s basketball Final Four.

For the season, Jude averages 5.7 points per game and leads the team in assists with 106.

The Louisville women’s team lost to UConn in the national championship game last April. Jude’s sister Shoni is unable to attend as she will be playing in the World University Games in Russia.

Jude Schimmel in the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Championship game

As many as 1200 Native American Youth Leaders from throughout the U.S. are expected to attend the UNITY conference in Woodland Hills just outside of LA.

Other confirmed keynote speakers include: The 1491s comedy group, Alex Shulte LPGA golfer, Charles Pierson CEO, Big Brothers and Big Sisters Leroy Not Afraid Crow Nation Legislative Branch, Justice of the Peace, and Deborah Parker, Vice Chairwoman of the Tulalip Tribes.

The lineup of this year’s Speakers is gearing up to make this National UNITY conference one of the best ever.

Lacrosse, Shinney & Double Ball: How Games Can Beat Historical Trauma

Jack McNeel, Indian Country Today Media Network

Native games, neuroscience, and historical trauma–they sound like an odd trio but collectively may provide answers to problems across Indian country. Educators, researchers, and youngsters from Alberta, Saskatchewan, the western U.S. and Alaska, even as far away as Delhi, India gathered at the First International Traditional Native Games Conference in Pablo, Montana on June 26-28.

Gregory Cajete, Tewa from Santa Clara Pueblo and director of Native American Studies at the University of New Mexico, has authored five books dealing with Native games. “We see young children as they’re growing up, especially the first few years of their life. Everything is play. The human propensity to be athletic is a very integral part of natural forms of education. It’s also the way the brain develops.”

Jaak Panksepp, a neuroscientist at Washington State University, has studied games and their effect on the brain. “The most sophisticated emotion built into our brains is play,” he said. “If we take play out of the lives of our children we will have children that cannot grow up to be normal, vibrant, positive human beings that respect others and know how to interact with them. Play is the bridge to a full human life.”

The third element, historical trauma, is well documented among Indigenous Peoples. Native Americans have been subjected to it in many ways, including the period of boarding schools that altered tribal life–and tribal games. “Early on Native games were targeted to erase them,” Cajete said. “If you’re trying to subjugate a people you begin to go for those institutions that bring people together and have an influence in terms of how well they can be controlled. Native games were the focus of many agents at that time.”

A game of double ball elicits many smiles and much laughter. (Jack McNeel)

The loss of games at boarding schools was illustrated when 17 elders from the Blackfeet Nation were invited to watch as youngsters took part in some games, and to offer comments as tribal protocol dictates. In some cases the youngsters knew much more about the games than did the elders, most of whom had spent time in boarding schools during their early years.

Recovering and restoring those traditional games, getting them reintroduced in Native communities and in schools, is the goal of the International Traditional Games Society, hosts of the conference.

Young people, teens and pre-teens, came to the conference to learn and to compete in various games. Jeremy Red Eagle, Sioux, is a board member of the International Traditional Games Society. He brought 10 young people with him from Helena, Montana. “We focus on the positive things: our language, our ceremonies and culture, our song and dance-and our games.” Then Red Eagle commented on two weeks of traveling with these young people and how they were sticking together without fighting or arguments. “These games are the foundation of what started our youth program. These kids will be leaders in our communities.”

Many games are played on a field while many others can be played in a classroom or at home. Most are quite simple and can be played with materials readily available: rocks, limbs, sticks, balls of buckskin or yarn. The list goes on. Some are games of skill or endurance while others may be of intuition.

Lacrosse seemed to be the game of choice but shinney was not far behind. Double ball is another favorite, somewhat similar to the other two but using straight sticks with double balls made of two stuffed pouches and joined together by a short band, usually of tanned buckskin.

Nicole Johnston, Inupiaq, chairs the World Eskimo Indian Olympics. She brought two young athletes to the conference to demonstrate games played in the far north. She is also a record holder in the women’s two-foot high kick. Their games are all designed for survival in the arctic north and thus very different from those which originated farther south.

The World Eskimo Indian Olympics ear pull event (Courtesy World Eskimo Indian Olympics)

The youth who participated in the games were honored at the final ceremony. Gifts were distributed including sets for shinney and double ball The visitors from Alaska gave gifts of an Indian stick pull stick and a kick-ball to the host organization.

Unselfish Leader, Shoni Schimmel Creates Path to Stardom

John Holt, Indian Country Today Media Network

Shoni Schimmel still smiles whenever someone approaches her with a compliment about the run that she and her Louisville teammates experienced during the 2013 NCAA Tournament.

The magical journey, which began with a 74-49 first-round win over Middle Tennessee on March 24, ended 16 days later in the national championship game with an upsetting loss to Connecticut.

Although Schimmel and Louisville didn’t ultimately win the crown, she is still proud of what was accomplished during the Cardinals’ historic 2012-13 season.

“As a team, we came together and really understood what basketball was about, and that’s what got us to the Final Four and to that national championship game,” Schimmel said. “We believed in ourselves and believed in one another and had each other’s back.”

Nearly three months since that NCAA title game defeat, the rising senior guard today is back in Colorado Springs, Colorado, for USA Women’s World University Games Team training camp.

Shoni returns to Louisville for her senior season this fall.

“It’s been great, just being able to get back and get back in the flow of things with everybody and get everything going,” Schimmel said. “Last night we played our first scrimmage together. It was pretty fun, but at the same time we weren’t all together yet.”

During the five weeks in between the conclusion of trials and the start of training camp, Schimmel was back at Louisville enrolled in two summer school sessions.

“I took an American Sign Language class,” she said. “It was actually a lot of fun.”

On the hardwood, from Schimmel’s point of view, dishing out an assist is more rewarding than scoring two points. Her favorite part of the game is distributing and she’s always had an unselfish mentality that is built around getting her teammates involved before herself.

“It’s easier for me to sit there and pass the ball and watch someone make an easy shot,” she noted. “I like to make that spectacular pass.”

Growing up in Mission, Oregon, Schimmel first picked up a basketball at the age of four. All seven of her siblings play the sport, and whenever she returns home, the entire family engages in pick-up games, even her four-year old little brother.

“I’m the competitive one out of all of them,” Schimmel said of the family basketball battles. “I’ll be getting mad and yelling at them and stuff like that just because I’m so competitive. My dad knows how to push my buttons a little bit, so me and him bump heads a little bit. But it’s always fun, and very competitive.”

Following her freshman season at Louisville, Schimmel’s sister, Jude, joined the Cardinal program. Originally, the plan was never for she and her sister to attend the same school, but Schimmel admitted as the pair grew older, the idea of playing together in college became more intriguing. She states that when she and Jude were kids, they watched the Disney Channel original film titled Double Teamed, which was based on the life stories of professional basketball players Heather and Heidi Burge, who are twins. The movie inspired Shoni and Jude that someday they could have the same level of success as the Heather and Heidi.

“We were like, ‘oh that’s us to a tee because they both played together, and then, they went off into the WNBA and played against each other,”’ Schimmel recalled.

The Cardinals’ sensational sister act: Jude, left, and Shoni Schimmel (courtesy Schimmel family)

These days, the sisters communicate all the time and even live together at school. At the same time, however, they rarely are allowed to room with each other during team road trips.

“She knows my every move when it comes to basketball,” Schimmel said of Jude. “Off the court we’re just as close.”

The best moment of Schimmel’s time at Louisville occurred during this season’s memorable NCAA Tournament run. In the regional semifinal, she and her Louisville teammates faced defending national champion Baylor. Heading into the game, analysts didn’t believe the Cardinals stood a chance. And honestly, could anyone blame them? Louisville had put together an impressive regular season, but Baylor appeared unstoppable. They entered the tournament as the top overall seed, featured the reigning National Player of the Year in Brittney Griner and were winners of 74 of their last 75 contests.

Yet despite what outsiders were saying and predicting, Louisville wouldn’t be fazed. The Cardinals led by 10 points at the intermission and extended their lead to 17 with 7 ½ minutes to play, before holding on for an 82-81 upset win for the ages. Schimmel, the Oklahoma City Regional Most Outstanding Player, led the way with 22 points, connecting on 5-of-8 3-pointers and also contributing a trio of steals.

“You still get that excitement,” Schimmel said looking back on the biggest win in Louisville women’s basketball history. “You still think about it, and it’s still there. I’ve only watched (the game) once. It was pretty crazy though.

“It was exciting. I was grinning the whole time watching it.”

Watch Louisville upset Baylor

On July 1, the USA World University Games Team departed for competition in Kazan, Russia. Having won gold at the World University Games the last four times USA Basketball sent an entry, Schimmel believes the USA has what it takes to keep its streak alive.

“It’s not really much pressure,” she said. “It’s more you want to go out there and keep doing it.”

When the team returns home on July 16, there won’t be any relaxation time for Schimmel. Instead, she’ll be boarding another flight. This time: to Los Angeles where she will meet her Louisville teammates at the 2013 ESPYS (the Cardinals’ win over Baylor has been nominated in the award ceremony’s Best Upset category).

“It’s a pretty hectic summer,” Schimmel said, “but at the same time, it’s very exciting and very thrilling.”

While the recent months have seen Schimmel evolve into someone with whom everyone surrounding women’s college basketball is now familiar, her No. 1 focus remains true.

“It’s awesome to be able to sit there and someone to say, ‘Hey you’re Shoni Schimmel or something like that,’” Schimmel acknowledged. “It’s cool. But at the same time, I’m just out there to play basketball.”

With one more collegiate season to go, expect Schimmel to continue progressing as well as to develop plenty more moments for her supporters to smile about. And if she’s fortunate enough to come home with a gold medal, anticipate the smiles to be bigger than ever before.

This story was first published on June 28 by USA Basketball and is reprinted here with permission of USA Basketball. To read the original story and to learn more about USA Basketball and the World University Games, click here.