How soccer survives — and thrives — in a northern Manitoba community

A strong, undying love for soccer has survived generations in Opaskwayak Cree Nation, despite a lack of resources or options for play during the long northern Manitoba winter.

"We don't really have nothing else to do here besides just going outside to play in the soccer field and kick the ball around," Opaskwayak soccer player Ashley Singh-Young, 18, said in an interview.

"So that's what most of our kids do here."

In Opaskwayak, a community where the sport is played even when basic equipment isn't available, the legacy of soccer is also a legacy of resilience.

Playing conditions in Opaskwayak can be bleak. There is nowhere to play in winter and in summer, people frequently invent novel solutions to navigate the minimal resources available to them.

Singh-Young remembers players transforming Tim Hortons cups into shin guards so they could play in a game.

In March, Singh-Young and others from Opaskwayak Cree Nation joined Manitoba member of Parliament Niki Ashton as she advocated for funding for recreational activities in the north. In three years, Canada will co-host the FIFA Men's World Cup, which Ashton says should incentivize the federal government and FIFA to invest in northern soccer.

Singh-Young was first introduced to the sport by her mom when she was eight. A decade later, she wears the same uniform her mother wore as a girl.

Singh-Young's team, OCN Superstars, was created in the late 1990s, and her mother played on that original team.

Current coach Teresa Constant founded the team with her friends when they were teens.

For Constant, her love for soccer almost feels inevitable.

"That's the only sport that I knew — that I grew up with," Constant said in an interview.

Her husband and co-coach Dylon Constant shares a similar memory of soccer in the community.

As a boy, he would walk to the field to watch the local men's team, the Big Eddy Warriors.  

As he watched them navigate the grassy pitch, he would dream of the day he could play, he said.

"That was my World Cup — that's what I wanted to do," Dylon said. 

"When you're on that field, your mind is free. Your problems go away. It's amazing what a sport can do to a mind."

A few years ago, the Superstars founders noticed history repeating itself with their daughters, who wanted to compete in the Opaskwayak Indian Days tournament.

Superstars hadn't fielded a team in recent years, and because of their ages, the girls were turned away from the women's league. 

"There were kids standing around the soccer field with soccer gear on, willing to play, and they were just too young," Dylon said. "It hit us there to start to make a team."

In 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, the community reinstated the team. They call themselves Superstars 2.0, in a nod to the original team's legacy.

A lot of what drives the sport's popularity in the community is the ability to connect generations, Dylon said. 

When he steps on the field, he is reminded that his parents and grandparents also played there.

Both Teresa and Dylon see soccer as not just a legacy that is communally inherited but also as a reflection of their community's desire to succeed.

Last year, the Superstars won the Opaskwayak Indian Days, a tournament they all grew up watching — a big accomplishment for the team, and one of Singh-Young's favourite soccer memories.

But in winter, the Superstars go into hibernation because of the lack of an indoor facility.

"There's still a lot of interest in soccer and we have to give that up because you know, we're in Canada and we're in northern Manitoba," Dylon said.

The winter doesn't go to waste — for northern teams it's fundraising time, he said. 

He hopes in the future there will be more resources and opportunities.

Constant wants to ensure the game that his children inherit is better than the one he was given, carrying forward what those before him did for him.  

"It's about the children, right? It's about getting them out there," he said. 

"[Seeing] the smiles they put on their faces — that takes care of everything. That takes care of all our sacrifices."