A pair of Turner Valley area basketball players are celebrating their heritage and culture on the basketball court.
Cevanna Carlson, 17, and her 13-year-old sister, Jorja, will play for Team Alberta girls teams at the North American Indigenous Games July 16-23 in Toronto.
“It means so much to me — I have the opportunity to represent where I come from and who I am as a person and that’s First Nations,” said Cevanna, who will play for Team Alberta U19 girls. “There are other kids who don’t get to do that — I am representing them. I am representing more than my nation, I am representing the people in it.”
The Carlsons’ roots are with the Deninu K’ue First Nation in the Northwest Territories. They moved to the Turner Valley area about nine years ago.
This is Cevanna’s second Games.
She played with Team Alberta in Regina in 2014.
“It is a lot of fun, I met so many people that I still talk to,” she said from NWT. “It was a great chance to meet people from across North America.”
Team Alberta just missed out on the podium in 2014 by finishing fourth. However, Cevanna got something more special than a medal.
“I found out I had a cousin on the Wisconsin team, which was pretty cool,” she said.
Cevanna made the 2017 U19 team at a two-day tryout at Kainai. She said the members come from across Alberta.
She is optimistic about Team Alberta’s chances.
“We have all type of different skills and can do different things,” said Carlson, who will play post for Team Alberta. “I think we will do really well.”
She made a stop in NWT to take root before the Games.
“I needed to visit my family before I go to NAIG — I do this to get grounded,” Cevanna said.
Okotoks area basketball fans would be familiar with Cevanna. The six-foot post has battled under the boards for the past two years with the Foothills Falcons.
She will be back with the defending 4A South Central champions Falcons next winter — and her experience in TO will help her when she returns to the Foothills’ nest.
“This (the Games) is going to give me more experience and the chance to learn new things,” she said.
Jorja has also established a foothold in the Foothills area basketball scene.
She plays for the Oilfields Drillers junior high squad. This will be her first Indigenous Games and she can hardly wait.
“My sister’s gone before and I really wanted to go before but I was too young,” she said. “It is going to mean a lot to me.”
Jorja took a weird route to her first Games — she was part of a U16 team, which didn’t qualify for Toronto.
“There was a coach from the U14 team who saw me play and she invited me to play,” said the five-foot-six Jorja.
She said her height and strength are the strongest aspects of her play.
“I have taken on girls close to the size of my sister and I have been able to shut them down,” she said.
She shares Cevanna’s enthusiasm to represent the First Nations.
“I am blonde and pale— it sometimes surprises people, what I am or who I am,” she said.
The family will be well represented in Toronto.
The sisters’ mother, Leslie Kucey, is the manager of Team Alberta basketball as well as Team Alberta’s registrar and with athletic services.
The basketball competition starts July 17. For more information go to naig2017.to
