Key Takeaways:
- Former Saskatoon Blades player Wacey Rabbit has been appointed assistant coach.
- Rabbit spent four seasons with the Blades from 2002 to 2006 before switching to the Vancouver Giants to help them win the 2007 Memorial Cup.
Wacey Rabbit, a former Saskatoon Blades player, has been hired as an assistant coach.
He exclaimed, “I’m incredibly excited.” “My head is simply racing with so many different emotions.”
Rabbit intended to return to Alberni Valley to lead a British Columbia Junior Hockey League squad.
“I probably wouldn’t have left if any other team in the league or hockey team asked me to do this. The Blades was truly something unique,” Rabbit stated.
From 2002 to 2006, Rabbit played for the Blades for four seasons before joining the Vancouver Giants to win the 2007 Memorial Cup. He is a Kainai First Nation citizen and was born in Lethbridge. He wants to support the Saskatoon Indigenous community by giving back.
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“The province has improved the game for Indigenous players. I just want to return and contribute in any manner I can, Rabbit remarked.
According to Rabbit, having a Native American on the bench provides Native Americans with someone to relate to. When he was younger, he recalls watching Shane Peacock, another Indigenous athlete, play for the Lethbridge Hurricanes.
It suggested the world to him to see someone who resembled him and came from a similar upbringing.
He is attended by his wife, Ashley Callingbull, a member of the Enoch Cree Nation and a previous Mrs. Universe contestant. She will represent the Saskatchewan Rush and the Blades as a brand ambassador.
She stated, “I want to build more alliances and chances for other Indigenous peoples. Because I deal mostly with vulnerable children and women fleeing domestic abuse, I can genuinely make a difference.
She aspires to give talks in communities, schools, and various shelters and organizations.
Because it’s so uncommon to see us in these areas, Native Americans must see other Native Americans succeed.
Priscilla Settee, an Indigenous studies professor at the University of Saskatchewan, expressed her joy in learning that the Blades had employed the pair.
She claimed that by hiring them, the racism she claims present in the sport of hockey would be eradicated, and they would act as role models for younger generations.
Source: CTV News
