It’s been a tough couple of days for N.W.T. athletes.
At the North American Indigenous Games (NAIG) in Halifax this week, the women’s 19U soccer team was defeated 14-0 by Alberta. The 19U Men’s volleyball team lost 2-0 to the territory’s emerging rival, Saskatchewan. And the men’s U19 soccer team lost two games in two days, one to Ontario and one to Saskatchewan.
The U19 men’s soccer team was up 1-0 against Ontario in the first half. “The first half we played pretty well,” says Ferghus Rutherford-Simon. “Everyone was working together. .Everything was going good. And then the second half, [our] goalie got hurt — kind of went downhill.”
The team ended up losing 5-1.
The U19 men’s basketball team lost 73-41 on Monday, once again to Saskatchewan. “We could have been better,” says John Voudrach, “But we still really did really good as a team. Everyone was getting shots up, and everyone was having fun, just having a good time playing basketball.”
There were positives as well: The U19 men’s basketball team came back Tuesday morning to defeat New Brunswick 61-24. And Team NT had some success in badminton, nabbing victories against Nova Scotia, Ontario, P.E.I. and Nunavut.
And Team NT still has plenty of opportunities to bring home gold: Wednesday includes a full roster of 15 events, from archery to basketball to soccer.
The NAIG run until this Sunday, July 23.
With files from Mariah Caruso.
