Reduced numbers of athletes to attend NAIG

Alberta will still be sending a rather large contingent to this year’s North American Indigenous Games, but the provincial entry will be attending without many of the athletes who qualified.

Ron Buffalo, who serves as the chef de mission for the Alberta squad, said several athletes who earned the right to represent the province at this year’s NAIG, scheduled for July 20-27 have withdrawn as they cannot afford the $460 fee to attend. The fee will cover bus expenses, accommodations and meals. NAIG is being held in Regina.

The Indigenous Sports Council Alberta, which is organizing the Alberta contingent for NAIG, had originally planned to charge each participating athlete $600.

But even the reduced rate has not prevented mass withdrawals.
“It’s still pricey,” Buffalo said. “For some parents $460 is a lot of money and they can’t afford to pay it.”

Buffalo added the ISCA does not have the financial resources to help out.

“We just don’t have enough money to assist these kids,” said Buffalo, who is an ISCA director.

Alberta had originally planned to send about 450 athletes and about 80 coaches/managers to NAIG.

While the number of coaches remains the same, Buffalo said the province will now be represented by 335 athletes.

“We’re going with what we can,” he said. “We’re not going with our gold-medal winning team (but) we’re confident we’ll be bringing home medals.”

All of Alberta’s qualifying events for NAIG were held in 2013. Athletes who have since withdrawn from the competition can only be replaced by those who had originally been selected as alternates for a team.

A total of 15 sports will be contested at NAIG. They are archery, athletics (track and field), badminton, baseball, basketball, canoeing, golf, kayaking, lacrosse, rifle shooting, soccer, softball, swimming, volleyball and wrestling.

Alberta will have representatives in every sport except wrestling.
As proof that the province will not be sending its best possible athletes, Buffalo singled out the basketball squads.

There will be a total of 72 Alberta players on six teams; female and male entrants participating at the under-14, under-16 and under-19 levels.

“Of the 72 players, maybe eight to10 of them will be alternates (who did not originally make the final rosters),” Buffalo said.

All of the competing Alberta teams are being asked to do their own fundraising to get their athletes to NAIG.

As a result, many athletes are still trying to figure out if they will be able to attend.

The ISCA has until June 13 to submit its final roster for all of its participants.

NAIG have been held sporadically since 1990. The games seem to have more success when they are staged at Canadian sites as opposed to American venues.

British Columbia’s Cowichan Tribes hosted the last NAIG, back in 2008. The games were to be held in Milwaukee in 2011 but were cancelled.

Six years between games marks the longest stretch since NAIG’s inception.