Rita Houle award winners named

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Joline Bull spends a lot of time playing basketball and volleyball. But she also practices scuba diving, jazz and tap dancing, piano, hockey and fastball.

The active 16-year-old from Louis Bull band at Hobbema was named Female Athlete of the Year at the Rita Houle Memorial Awards Banquet in Edmonton last Saturday. "And not only that, she's also the president of the students' union at her high school this year," adds her proud father.

The busy young lady is one of four youngsters in the family of Harrison and Ida Bull. "We run with her daily and go to all her tournaments," says Harrison.

Bull won the Native Student of the Year award in both Grades 8 and 9 and the Owen Buffalo Memorial Award last year. As well, she was declared winner of the Indian athlete award at Wetaskiwin Junior High School and the four nations and the Louis Bull competitions. She has also competed successfully at events in Saskatchewan and Albuquerque, New Mexico.

"The whole family is proud of her accomplishments and we encourage her to concentrate on her recreation and athletic abilities," her father says. He adds that he is especially proud of the way she has resisted peer pressure to use drugs. Many athletes are tempted, he notes.

His daughter balances school work with her many athletic responsibilities, but has lots of encouragement. "My wife is a school teacher and I am a university graduate, so we help where ever we can," he says.

Willard Lewis of the Beaver Lake band was awarded the Male Athlete of the year award. With his specialty being boxing, he has won awards at Montreal and at the provincial and western Canadian championship levels in recent years in the middleweight division.

Lewis has lived at Beaver Lake for the past nine years. "But I've only been boxing for three years at the club we use in Lac la Biche," he explains. The 16-year-old has two brothers and one sister and his family is very supportive of his athletic competitions.

Lewis is heading to Kingston in December to compete t the national level for the 1992 Olympics. When he goes on the road, he takes along school work from his Grade 11 class. "The teachers assign a week's homework and I try to keep up while I'm away."

Next year Lewis heads to Prince Edward Island to compete in the Canada Winter Games.

After graduation the young athlete hopes to train as an electrician, but he plans to stay involved in sports.

The awards are given every year to two deserving athletes I memory of Rita Houle, who died of cancer in 1980 at the age of 20, bringing to a tragic end what promised to be a brilliant career in sports. The event is hosted by the Canadian Native Friendship Center.

Tom Erasmus, guest speaker for the evening, encouraged the winners and nominees alike, to carry the torch as ambassadors and role models for the young people of Indian nations. Erasmus is an accomplished sportsman himself, having won the 1985 Tom Longboat Award as Canada's Top Native Athlete.

"Look at the Native people in sports in the past, Willie Littlechild, Alwyn Morris, John Belaanger and other. They all went on to careers in business or politics. Sports served as a stepping-stone," he noted. Competing helps build qualities needed to compete in life and becoming a team member builds abilities and determination, he said.

"Take the pride you feel in successful sports competition back to your communities. We all need heroes to look up to and you young people are going to be the heroes of tomorrow," he said.