Four Sask. players named to Canada world junior hockey championship team
Dec 14, 2024
Berkly Catton, Brayden Yager, Caden Price and Tanner Howe were all named.
Team Saskatchewan is getting geared up to head to the Niagara 2022 Canada Summer Games in 11 days.
The competition will last 18 days, with youth competitors travelling from all across Canada. The 377 athletes, 86 coaches, managers and technicians, and 25 mission staff will make it one of the biggest Team Saskatchewan’s to date.
On Tuesday, athletes gathered at the Regina Performing Arts Centre to meet one last time before they begin travelling across the country.
The team uniforms and pins were unveiled with the help of a few athletes who sported them at the unveiling. Guests like Minister of Parks, Culture and Sport Laura Ross, Sask Sport board chair Michael Rogers and Saskatchewan Games Council board chair Amber Holland all received complimentary Team Sask gear.
Athletes model Team Saskatchewan‘s uniforms for the Canada Summer Games. (Gillian Massie/980 CJME)
One very special athlete will be leading the pack at the Games. Angel Besskkaystare, a wrestler from northeastern Saskatchewan, has made a lot of sacrifices to continue in her sport.
Besskkaystare said she was surprised when she was named this year’s flag bearer for the opening ceremonies.
“It was shocking,” said Besskkaystare. “But I was excited at the same time because having to lead all the Saskatchewan athletes is big.”
Besskkaystare originally comes from Wollaston Lake in northern Saskatchewan. Four years ago, she moved to Prince Albert, which she said was a difficult transition. She said it was hard for her to make friends and adjust to living more than 10 hours away from the rest of her family.
It was in Prince Albert where she was first introduced to wrestling. She remembers her first practice not going as smoothly as she imagined, running stairs and then being exhausted afterwards.
She’s glad she went back for the next practice.
“It made me open up to other people,” said Besskkaystare. “I used to keep to myself (before wrestling). It just taught me to go out and be around people.”
Besskkaystare fell in love with wresting after that. She chose to stay in Prince Albert, sleeping on the floors of friends’ houses to keep competing. She thinks that she made the right choice.
“It has really changed my life,” she said. “I think I’m the first person from my community that has gone so far for wrestling.”
She has just graduated from high school and will be attending the University of Saskatchewan to become an Indigenous-focused school teacher. She also has a spot on the Huskies wrestling team.
Mark Bracken, the chef de mission of Team Sask, said Besskkaystare’s story made her an obvious candidate for flag bearer.
“That story is incredible,” he said. “It’s the story of an athlete who slept on the floor to further her education to live her dream of becoming a high-level wrestler.”
Bracken said he’s glad to head back into competition after sports were shut down during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It’s been tough for a lot of these athletes, (with) some of them hindered by training opportunities due to the pandemic,” he said. “Now, with perseverance, they continue to work through COVID, and it will still be there at the Games.”
He hopes that Team Sask will finish fifth overall among the provinces at the Games.
“Medals and performances are something that many of these athletes are shooting for, but the Canada Games are just so much more than that,” he said. “I tell people that this is Canada’s version of the Olympic Games.”
Athletes will get the full experience from opening ceremonies to staying in the athletes’ village.
“It’s special,” said Bracken. “The opportunity to go to these Games and see our young, developing athletes on the national stage compete against the best in the country, it just sends chills.”
Team Sask will be participating in all 19 events, something that Bracken is very excited about. Competitors are from more than 70 Saskatchewan communities, including eight Special Olympics athletes and eight para-athletes.
“We have our fingers crossed that our athletes will stay safe and healthy and have a good experience,” Bracken said.