Well-known archer teaching students to shoot for the sky
Montreal Lake Cree Nation is trying to become a pioneer for youth reform through sports and a popular community member is taking the lead to make it happen.
Stanley Bird is a champion of the community’s archery program. He is a five-time Canadian national champion himself, and a gold medal winner of the North American Indigenous Games (NAIG), the Northern archery coach of the Saskatchewan Summer Games and the coach of Team Saskatchewan for NAIG. To Bird, none of that matters unless his children succeed.
“The love of archery, I’ve always had that… I’m kinda the guy who is behind the scenes working, that’s the kind of guy I am. Everyone else can take the credit and I’m okay with that. So long as our kids win medals, in my heart I’m like ‘yeah, yeah!’ I’m not the kind of guy that wants to take credit,” he said.
For Bird, the most exciting part about being part of NAIG is working with students through the try-out and development period.