Debassige ending minor hockey career with medals

By Sam Laskaris

M’CHIGEENG FN – Deidre Debassige was able to conclude her minor hockey career on a rather upbeat note.
The 18-year-old, who is from the M’Chigeeng First Nation, competed in a pair of national championships in a span of two weeks. And she was able to win some hardware at both events.
For starters, Debassige was a member of the Sudbury Lady Wolves, a Midget AA club that captured the gold medal at the national Esso Cup. This six-team tournament, which concluded on Apr. 25, was held in Red Deer, Alta.
Instead of returning home, however, with her teammates, Debassige travelled to Calgary the next day  in order to fly to Toronto and then catch a connecting flight to Halifax. She travelled to the Nova Scotia capital to represent the Ontario girls’ team at the National Aboriginal Hockey Championships (NAHC).
The national Aboriginal tourney featured eight clubs in the girls’ division and eight squads in the boys’ category.
Debassige and her teammates won a silver medal at this tournament, which concluded this past Saturday. Ontario was edged 3-2 by Saskatchewan in the gold-medal match.
“It was saddening at first (not winning gold at the NAHC),” Debassige said. “But the Aboriginal tournament was more of a fun thing for me to end the season.”
Debassige added she was thrilled she was able to finish off her Lady Wolves’ career with a gold medal at their nationals.
“That was a bit more important to me,” she said. “I spent eight years with that organization.”
Debassige, a Grade 12 student at Sudbury’s St. Charles College, is uncertain where her hockey career will take her next. She turned down a scholarship offer from an American school as she is keen to stay in Canada.
Within the next couple of weeks she’ll decide which university she’d like to attend. Her list of possible options is down to three universities in Ontario and one in Alberta.
The Ontario girls’ roster at the NAHC featured several other Anishinabek individuals. This list included three players from Garden River; Jana Headrick and sisters Reanne and Britney Zack. The club’s head coach, Karen Bell, is also from Garden River.
Other Anishinabek players were Nicole Rogers (Chippewas of Kettle and Stony Point), Cheyenne Bates-Saucier (Wikwemikong), Presley Young (Nipissing), Alli Moses (Delaware), Kamryn Whiteye (Delaware),  Tasza Thibault (Thessalon), Melanie Young (Dokis) and Bailey Chenier (Michipicoten).
Also, the team’s general manager, Gloria Hendrick-Laliberte, is a member of the Chippewas of the Thames.
Meanwhile, the Ontario boys’ club placed fifth at the NAHC.
Anishinabek players on the team were Anthony Pelletier (Whitefish River), Gregory Trudeau-Paquet (Wikwemikong), Tanner Webkamigad (Wikwemikong), Mickey George (Nipissing), Logan Lefebvre (Pikwakanagan) and Kain Hopkins (Delaware of the Thames).