Game On Magazine - April 2017 Game on Preview Edition | Page 112

Manitoba First:
Gold for both
Manitoba teams
at NAHC
B y S c o t t Tay l o r
Photos courtesy MASRC
1 1 2 | G AM E O N | SE P T EM BER 2 0 1 7
F
or Kevin Monkman, the
head coach of male Team
Manitoba, the final
of the 2017 National
Aboriginal Hockey
Championship was
just a little too exciting. For
Dale Bear, the head coach of
female Team Manitoba, even
winning with ease was often
gut-wrenching. Of course, as
all hockey coaches know, that’s
just part of the job. Especially
when you coach teams that are
as good as this year’s editions
of Team Manitoba.
For the first time in the
history of the National
Aboriginal Hockey
Championships, Manitoba’s
male and female teams both won
gold medals. It was an incredible
feat for a small province that
had previously won one male
championship (2002) and
two female championships
(2009, 2010).
For the uninitiated, the
NAHC provides a forum for
elite Aboriginal hockey players
throughout Canada. Each region
is represented by two teams, one