Coach Dakota Nepoose: Spirit North helps find balance in sport and life

By Laura Mushumanski, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

(ANNews) – Dakota Nepoose grew up in the community of Maskwacis and has been part of it his whole life. Sport has always been important to him, and he continues to be involved in sport in his home community.

“Sport has always been a huge part of my life,” Nepoose shared. “I started when I was young, my mom was my coach for most of my life in basketball. That was my main sport and running. I like to think that she is the reason I went the path of Indigenous Youth Sport, because I saw her do it my whole life, and I saw the impact that sport in the community has.”

Nepoose grew up playing sport, then started coaching, which led him to become involved with the North American Indigenous Games since 2006, as well as playing, coaching and organizing the Alberta Indigenous Games since they started in 2011.

“All of those [opportunities] led me to Spirit North,” he added, “the perfect opportunity for me, because up until this point, all of my work in the community when it had to do with sport and physical activity was volunteer. It had to just be on my own time and whenever I had that free time.”

One thing Nepoose learned over the years, was finding balance in sport. He shares that lesson with youth today. “I use the Medicine Wheel in all aspects of coaching. I try to encourage all the youth that I come in contact with, to keep their life balanced and encourage them to incorporate all aspects of the Medicine Wheel. I always talk about how we are fulfilling the physical part whenever we [engage in sport], I like to encourage the emotional, spiritual, and mental—whether it’s smudging at the beginning of a practice [or something else]. I talk about the importance of being in school … I like to talk about having good relations emotionally when we are doing sport in our community.”

For almost 6 years now, Nepoose has been working with Spirit North, since almost the very beginning, and a majority of his time has been spent in his home community. “I have been able to be a part of the long-term growth of what a Spirit North program can look like in a community over time… I have enjoyed my role in community when it comes to just providing the physical aspect of balance.”

The balance that Nepoose speaks about, was brought on from his own awareness over time within his own holistic practice that sustains him on and off the court. At first a lot of his focus was solely on the physical aspect of sport. Gradually he came to know that he needed to engage with his emotional, mental, and spiritual health as well. Over the years as a coach, Dakota also noticed that a lot of the kids also lose touch with all other aspects of their health and well-being. He now teaches them to put just as much effort into all aspects of their life, not just the physical.

“I am just starting to see the long-term effects… it is very humbling,” he says. “Basketball has been my focus, you get a lot more time with the youth. I try and teach values that I grew up with. A lot of the youth that I worked with and coached with Spirit North are now adults. I play with some that I used to coach…its very humbling, it goes full circle. One individual I coached since he was little, ended up working with me in the community with Spirit North.”

When working with Spirit North in his home community, Dakota visits 12 schools within Maskwacis, usually going to a school for a week at a time to run an outdoor program. The programs offered are either their land-based programs or through their gym program.

“When I first started, Spirit North was basically a travel program that would just bring cross country skiing to any community it could, but it was more targeted to isolated communities that wouldn’t get that experience. That was about 6 years ago. It has grown now; we are all over Canada now. We have built those relationships over 6 years, and we bring programming that the teachers might not be certified to do because a lot of it is outdoors, [with] different logistics involved – it’s like outdoor education…mountain biking, canoeing, kayaking, cross-country skiing, archery – basically a lot of land-based activities.”

Spirit North also has travel programs and is able to bring equipment into communities for Indigenous youth to engage in sport activities while building meaningful relationships with communities.

For more information visit www.spiritnorthxc.ca