By: Justin Boone
In football, being prepared is a way of life. A week of practices, team meetings, and film study, all for 60 short minutes on the field to decided who wins. So perhaps it’s fitting that when bye week arrived, J.P. Bekasiak, Nick Kordic, and Geoff Tisdale threw readiness out of the end zone and headed into parts unknown for the True Noth Wellness Football Camp in Ouje-Bougoumou, Quebec.
What they found, along with offensive coordinator Marcel Bellefeuille, was an area rich in natural beauty, a village carefully designed to accommodate its 700 citizens, and a group of people facing an opponent that they can most certainly overcome.
When the kids attending the camp weren’t on the field running drills or participating in a variety of games, they were in the classroom learning valuable lessons about proper nutrition, the effects of drugs and alcohol, and the choices they face in their lives as they grow up.
“One day I will have to retire and who will take over?” said Kenny Mianscum, Director of Operations for the Ouje-Bougoumou Inuit Association. “It’s true that these young people are our future and we are trying our best to provide programs that help them to see themselves as potential future leaders.”
Surrounded by vast forests and lakes, there is only one 25 km road, that leads into and out of the small Cree community. Many of the children, some who haven’t even hit double digits in birthdays, have already conceded that they will never make that drive towards post-secondary schooling.
“It’s hard educating the children to see their potential,” explained Miascum. “We do everything we can to encourage them to move on to school and once they have completed their education, they can come back and help our people and the Cree nation as a whole.”
Miascum, whose name means “fresh tracks,” has lived through some of the most difficult years in his people’s history, and has firm grasp on the challenges the youth of their community are facing. However, like his name suggests, he is hopeful for the upcoming generation.
“We feel confident that they have it within themselves, but they hear it from their father, they hear it from their mother, and it becomes kind of like a broken record. With the Tiger-Cats and True North Wellness coming in and telling them the possibilities, it really motivates them.”
There are plans to build a museum in the next couple of years to house the history of their people. It will allow the children a chance to see what Miascum and others have gone through and will allow them to prepare for what lies ahead, just like those hours of film study the Ticats players sit through every week.
