Two Incredible Female Athletes Empower Themselves and Others through Sport
KL Employee Emily Simpson takes home the victory as she travelled to Sooke, BC in May to compete in the West Coast Wonder Women competition – one of only 5 all-female boxing cards in the world. Emily has been training with Team Trouble for a year and a half and always had a vision to compete and to serve as inspiration for not only youth but for the future boxing generation of girls and women. Leading up to the competition, Emily was in fight camp for over a month where she stepped up her training by taking on more running, lifting, pad work and more. And it paid off!
Emily won her match, cheered on by her teammates, and by a delegation of
KL staff who travelled to Sooke to support her. Emily shares “Women made history
in the boxing community, showing the world that women are suitable to fight in a male dominated sport. It was an incredible experience, to be surrounded by many empowering boxers from across Canada, US, and Mexico. Being around these women I realized that all my hard work paid off and was reminded that everything is earned. It was great to take home that victory but meeting so many strong individuals was the true win.” Emily is the only woman in Team Trouble and her goal is to introduce more young girls and women into a
sport where less than a third of the competitors are women.
“In reality the gloves fit every one despite age, size, stereotypes or gender,” says Emily, “It’s hard to explain the appeal of the sport if you’ve never stepped into the ring
or boxing gym, you may think it’s just getting punched in the face, but it’s taking the skills you’ve developed; the foot work, head movements, combinations, and playing a game of chess in your mind, and overall just having fun with your teammates.”
9 Nations Lacrosse Inspires Future Champions The mission of 9 Nations Lacrosse is to provide a vision for Indigenous children and youth to carry themselves with pride and confidence, to have fun, to learn about the origins of the sport, to infuse cultural teachings into each session, to achieve their highest potential and to
dream big.
Wade and Shawna Jacobs-Good, parents of Terrena “Nina” Good, noted that when Nina first heard about the lacrosse sessions she said, “I’ll try.” However, as she continued attending each session her enthusiasm built up to the point where she became excited and eager to play games. Shawna attributes Nina’s enthusiasm to coaches, Will Johnny and Aaron Moore. “Will is just amazing at explaining the sport through a cultural lens and provides easy to understand explanations to things like why it is called the Medicine Game and Creator’s Game. Aaron is so passionate about the sport and enthusiastic while continuously encouraging the kids through warm-ups and motivating the kids to do their best and have fun. Paul Wyse (Snuneymuxw), a former lacrosse player, has also been on hand to share his insight into cultural ties to the game which helped inspire the kids too.”
As a result of the 9 Nations Lacrosse program 11 kids have taken another step in registering into minor lacrosse leagues as they quickly displayed natural ability and talent.
This includes Nina! “We are so proud of our little Timbermen girl!”, says Shawna, “She has absolutely immersed herself into the sport and her first lacrosse stick seems to be an extension of her body. Nina feels empowered by the game and insists on putting her equipment by herself and looks forward to each practice and game with her new
Timbermen Tykes team. She practices twice per week and played her first league game in Campbell River in which she scored her first goal on a breakaway. Her Timbermen coach, Brad Jones, stated, “I’m so impressed with her cradling skills and natural ability,” that Nina was asked to practice with the novice division team. While she is excelling as an offensive player she is also keen to learn how to play the defensive position too. “We are so grateful for the 9 Nations Lacrosse program and we feel that this experience will certainly open more
doors for her moving forward.”
The first program concluded with a celebration field trip
to Vancouver to witness a professional lacrosse game
between the Vancouver Warriors and San Diego Seals
at Rogers Arena on April 30th. The National Lacrosse
League (NLL) game was billed as Indigenous Night and
the children, kids and family members were treated to
an all access facility tour, a meet and greet with Warriors
players and cheerleaders who were accessible for signing
autographs and posing for
photos together.
Read more stories in our Summer Newsletter: https://www.flipsnack.com/.../summer-2022-kl-newsletter.html