Several rosters for this year’s North America Indigenous Games have been established and include a number of Port Alberni’s top youth athletes. For three high school students who will be attending the July event for wrestling, it is a chance to keep up their fitness and compete in a more recreational environment during their off-season.
Morgan Dagenais, Jayden Iverson and William Merry have all been wrestling since their late elementary school years and have endured their own challenges and successes at the high school level. Dagenais, who will be graduating this year, was introduced to the sport in Grade 5 because her older brother participated. She got her feet wet then but did not start competing aggressively until grades seven and eight.
It was at the same time that Merry, a Grade 10 student, became interested. “I saw a demo when I was in Grade 4 and it caught my eye,” Merry said.
“I signed up at Neill (Middle School), went to the first practice, and that got me going.”
When fellow Grade 10 wrestler, Iverson, moved to Port Alberni from Winnipeg in Grade 7, he was looking for new opportunities.
“I tried wrestling and loved it,” he said.
The three applied to compete in the NAIG, held in Toronto from July 16-23, and were chosen based on results from this year.
For the past two years, Dagenais has placed fifth in the provincials and last year was third in the Greco-Roman event at the Nationals. Iverson has brought home first place in the Island Championships and in the War on the Floor tournament at Simon Fraser University for the novice division. He also won some of his matches at the provincials in Salmon Arm this year. Although Merry said it was a tough year, he achieved second at the Islands and first in his age class in Kamloops.
The wrestling season wrapped up in March, but the three athletes remain active year-round.
“I am still in rugby now and I plan on joining in some of the Canada Games team training,” Dagenais said. “I will be doing things to keep my fitness up.”
Iverson has been coaching track and field, but says the hardest part for him now is keeping his wrestling weight down.
“It was brutal for the Islands,” he said. “I had two weeks to cut three kilos.”
Merry said he wants to improve his skills for next year so along with joining the Canada Games practices before NAIG, he will return to them after the Games.
They all consider the Games to be low-key compared to the regular season and look forward to the experience.
“I’m looking forward to getting on the mat again,” Dagenais said.
They are also excited to spend some time in Toronto this summer.
Other local athletes chosen to date include:
Rylee Mitchell for Track and Field
Raegan Dudoward for Softball
Memphis Dick for Basketball
Kristine Edgar for Canoe/Kayak
Dylan Marchand for Canoe/Kayak
Quentin Tate for Canoe/Kayak
Marcus Jeffery for Canoe/Kayak
Norman Mack for Canoe/Kayak
Laurana Karlson for Lacrosse
Arianna Johnson-Sabbas for Softball
(Did we miss a name? E-mail Susie Quinn at editor@albernivalleynews.com and we will add it to the list. This is the list as we have received it so far.)