Award recipients from Saskatchewan recognized.

WINNIPEG

Jacqueline Lavallee has won yet another Tom Longboat Award.

But this time it's an even more prestigious one. And it's for her coaching efforts, not for her own play which garnered her first award.

Lavallee, a Metis who has been the assistant coach with the University of Saskatchewan women's basketball squad the past six years, was chosen as the female recipient for a National Aboriginal Coaching Award for 2008.

Each year there are four national Tom Longboat Award winners; a female and a male athlete and a female and male coach. The awards, named after the legendary Six Nations runner, honour outstanding Aboriginal amateur athletes and coaches.

"It's a huge honour to win a national award," said Lavallee, a 31-year-old Saskatoon resident. "It's nice to be recognized."

The award was given to Lavallee in a banquet during the National Aboriginal Hockey Championships in the Manitoba capital in early May.

Lavallee had previously won a Tom Longboat Award in 2000 at the regional (Saskatchewan) level for being a star basketball and soccer player at the University of Saskatchewan.

"When you move on from being an athlete, you don't really expect any awards," said Lavallee, who played one season of pro basketball in Germany following her university days. "It's very different."

Besides helping to coach the university team now, Lavallee is also involved in some other basketball ventures.

This is her third season as the head coach for the Centre For Performance, a Basketball Canada venture that sees her working with elite players, from Grade 7-12, from across the province. She's also in her fourth year of running Team Spirit, an Aboriginal girls' basketball program based in Saskatoon.

And if these duties weren't enough to keep her occupied, Lavallee will also be kept busy this year as an assistant coach for the Canadian cadet (under17) girls' basketball squad that will attempt to qualify for its world championships.

As for Canada's top male Aboriginal coach for 2008, the honour went to Mike Alexander, a badminton coach from Newfoundland.

Before being announced as a national winner for her coaching award, Lavallee was also chosen as a regional winner for Saskatchewan.

Meanwhile, a pair of Saskatchewan athletes, golfer William Cameron and track and field athlete Elecktra Charles, also received a regional Tom Longboat Award.

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Cameron and Charles, however, did not win the national athlete awards.

British Columbia's Matt Klein, who participates in air rifle shooting events, was chosen as the country's top male athlete. And Manitoba's Alyssa Johnson, a track and field competitor, was deemed the top female athlete.

Cameron, 62, continues to excel in senior golf events. He won the Saskatchewan senior tournament, for aged 55 and over, this past July in Moose Jaw.

A total of 130 golfers entered the four-day event. Cameron, who is from the Beardy's First Nation but lives at Duck Lake, finished five strokes ahead of his nearest rival.

But this wasn't the first time he won the provincial senior championship. He captured back-to-back titles when he was 55 and 56.

Cameron also placed second in the event at age 57 before winning his third crown in four years at age 58.

But winning a Tom Longboat Award caught him totally off guard.

"It was a total surprise," he said. "I didn't have any inclination this was happening."

And though he won yet another provincial title, Cameron didn't think he was worthy of his latest accolade.

"That's quite an accomplishment," he said. "I didn't think I was in the same category as the winners of the Tom Longboat Award."

Cameron, who took up golfing at age 27, is a member of the Valley Regional Park Golf Club in Rosthern.

He said winning a Tom Longboat Award will not provide him with any additional inspiration to perform well at future golf events.

"I don't need any inspiration to play golf," he said. "That's the best part about golf. You keep playing until you can't play anymore."

As for Elecktra Charles, who lives in Saskatoon, she was chosen as a regional Tom Longboat Award winner in large part because of her efforts in one meet.

Charles captured six medals (five gold, one bronze) at the North American Indigenous Games this past summer in Cowichan, B.C.

She won her 400-metre and her 800-metre races and also placed first in her javelin event.

And she was also a member of a pair of winning relay teams, in the 4x100-metre and 4x400metre races.

Charles won her bronze medal in her 1,500-metre event. She was thrilled to win her latest award, especially since it is named after a famous Aboriginal runner.

"I know a lot about him," said Charles, who is a Grade 11 student at Saskatoon's Tommy Douglas Collegiate. "He was just amazing."

Charles, a member of Saskatoon's Riversdale Track Club, hopes to register some impressive performances this year. She's hoping to qualify for the Royal Canadian Legion's national meet, for those 17 and under, which will be held in Quebec this August.

BY SAM LASKARIS

Sage Writer