SUBMITTED PHOTO
Alex Baird poses with his gold medal from the North American Indigenous games captured with Team Alberta with a four set win over Manitoba on July 22.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
Alex Baird left for the North American Indigenous Games with the goals of showcasing his volleyball skills and learning more about Indigenous backgrounds: he did just that.
The Grade 12 student from Medicine Hat High School won gold on July 22 with Team Alberta at the N.A. Indigenous games hosted at Halifax on Turtle Island. Looking back on the week’s experience, Baird says it met, then soared past his expectations.
“I was able to meet a bunch of new people, played against a bunch of new people and learn a lot about the culture, their culture just in general. It was really nice,” Baird said.
Alberta beat Manitoba in the final in a four-set contest, 25-15, 25-11, 20-25, 25-15. They went a perfect 4-0 in their round robin before beating Ontario in the semifinal.
Baird stood out in the tournament, finishing second on Team Alberta with 35 kills in the games and tied for the lead in aces with 12 and had 14 digs. It was a performance he was happy with and was even happier to share it with the team.
“I had a lot of help from the other players there, they helped me hone my skills,” Baird said.
“Our first game was a little rough because it was our first game playing together. But then after that we started bonding a bit more, had more time to get to know each other and then we slowly and surely got better and proceeded to just play our game.”
One of Baird’s focuses heading into the Games was to learn more about his culture and the Michel Band, to which he belongs. He says he learned a little bit more about the Michel Band, which is a mix of Mohawk from Ontario and Cree, but learned more about the local bands and their cultures.
“The main focus there was kind of Nova Scotian band and Mi’kmaw band,” said Baird. “But just learning about that was really interesting and learning about their tribes and Indigenous backgrounds was nice.”
There wasn’t just one takeaway from learning about the bands and their different ways of doing things, it was all just one big impression.
“They had a flag with their band stuff and I have one of those now, I kept it from the trip. We were able to learn some of their dances from our opening ceremony. Just those kinds of small things were pretty interesting to see.”
While they weren’t playing volleyball Baird says they were able to see the water around Halifax and see animals like seals and starfish for the first time.
“We went down to the harbour and went on the Harbour Hopper. It was a little bus that took you around downtown,” Baird said. “It showed you around and it went into the harbour and told us some history about it.”
His dad John made the trip with him, which allowed the two of them to find some time alone and enjoy their surroundings and the moment.
“It was really special. It was nice to have a couple of moments where it was just me and my dad and we were able to have some quality time together,” Baird said.
He won provincial gold with his local club team earlier this spring and is heading into his final year of high school volleyball with the Hawks. He’s hoping to take some of the minor skills he learned, like the approach of attack and small things on defence from fellow Alberta players and other Canadian athletes, and apply them to his upcoming volleyball season.
