By: Justin Boone
If you’re wondering which Tiger-Cat will be starting at quarterback on Labour Day, you can rule out one name, Nick Kordic.
The first year linebacker stepped behind centre during the True North Wellness Football Camp, with a receiving corps made up of children from the Cree community of Ouje-Bougoumou, Que.
“I think I need to stick to being on defence,” joked the former Western Mustang.
“The kids were great though. At first I didn’t know how they would react to a touch football game, but they knew how to lineup onside, they formed the huddle each time and executed plays, which was surprising to see with a variety of different age groups.”
The children in the area are surprisingly inactive, despite a wealth of athletic facilities including a football/soccer field, baseball diamond, basketball and tennis courts, and a sports complex that holds a hockey arena, a half-size Olympic swimming pool and a weight room that rivals the Ticats own training room.
“There are a lot of things here to get kids going to better themselves,” said Kordic. “So I think our job coming up here was to push them along that path, and I think we accomplished that.”
“The kids showed they can be really energetic and a lot of fun when motivated. The effort is definitely there. I had some of the girls that were 14 and older, and then I had the young kids that were under eight and they were just excited to run the plays.”
While football is the theme of the camp, it’s not the real goal behind what True North Wellness is trying to achieve in these small communities.
“Many of these kids have lost the ability to dream, and what we’re trying to do is bring that back to them,” explained Gord Hudson, the director of Youth Healing service for True North Wellness.
“It just creates a little more hope for them,” said Ticats offensive coordinator Marcel Bellefeuille, who brought his entire family to Northern Quebec to help him serve as head coach of the camp. “They have athletes here that can be role models for them, and it provides them with an opportunity to be around the players and coaches and gives them an idea of what things are like outside their community.”
Bellefeuille may be an expert on the field of play, but when it came to the cheerleading portion of the camp he left that in the hands of Ticats cheerleaders Laura and Meghan. With a few days of practice, the girls led a performance in front of the entire school, presenting a dance routine and the Oskee Wee Wee.
Luckily for everyone involved, Kordic learned his lesson with his attempted quarterback play and stayed away from the pom poms.
