HAMILTON — The Hamilton Tiger-Cats Quarterback Jeremiah Masoli and running back Maleek Irons spent the day running athletic drills with youth from Six Nations.
Backed by Warrior Park Athletics, the day was in part of the Ti-Cats Youth Movement presented by LiUNA, last Sunday, which brought together over 10 Indigenous youth.
The youth also took part in a cheque presentation of $15,000, recognizing the donation made by the Tiger Cats to the Youth Movement game day program, followed by a sports combine at the Tim Hortons Field.
“We are really grateful to the youth7movement, LiUNA Canada and the Hamilton Tiger-Cats for creating the game day event that gave kids from ‘6’ the opportunity to attend a game, receive Ti-Cat swag and food vouchers,” said Owner of Warrior Athletics Mike Hill, adding that “it was an amazing day.”
Hill said that Warrior Park Athletics objective is to use the power of sports and recreation to help inspire and empower youth, and the organization exists to be a low-cost solution to organized sport.
“There’s a lot of families out there that don’t have the resources to put their kids through sports and that’s a problem. It should not come down to money when it comes to being able to participate. There’s so much positivity that comes from participating. Warrior Park is pursuing non profit status and will be going after funding that allows us to operate a amazing staff that keeps this main objective at the top,” he said.
Once registered with Warrior Park, participants undergo a fitness assessment, which is the same athletic measure in the mobile camp. Hill said that Warrior Par is “excited at the connectivity this gives us and all the amazing possibilities,”as the mobile camp has opened a wider horizon for their initiative to reach more.
“I love that theres so much opportunity here. We have developed a mobile camp that allows us to take Warrior Park on the road. It gives us the ability to travel to other indigenous communities especially the ones that are lacking resources,” he said.
“Our objective with everything is to maximize our impact and we feel that our two day camps do this. We can go in train these kids with affective affordable equipment that were able to leave, things that kids can take home and keep training with their families. We want to provide an amazing two day experience and not just leave.”
Hill also thanked local businesses Jukasa designs, pro-fit health club, Kanata Fuels, Mont-Hill Golf who have allowed us to purchase a thousand pairs of shoes at a cut-cost from Shelley at ILA Sports and Under Armour.
“We are really grateful to have been recognized this summer and invited out to a lot of events held by organizations that we have a ton of respect for. We recognize the value in sharing each other’s resources and are excited to be working on some pretty incredible things as we speak,” said Hill.
As part of the CFL’s program, the youth also took home their own footballs as the program is working to send 10,000 “pigskins” to youth across the country.
