By TRT Staff with notes from aboriginalsportcircle.ca
OTTAWA— On October 30, the Aboriginal Sport Circle was pleased to announce the recipients of the 2023 National Indigenous Coaching Awards; Tyndall Fontaine of Manitoba and Savanna Smith of British Columbia.
According to the Aboriginal Sport Circle press release, Smith is an international level lacrosse coach from Surrey, British Columbia. She has had the pleasure of coaching at the North American Indigenous Games multiple times, leading her team to the podium each time. She has also coached at the international level, serving as the Team Manager for the 2019 Haudenosaunee Female Lacrosse Team for the 2019 World Lacrosse U19 Women’s Lacrosse Championships.
She remains a well-known and well-respected Box and Field Lacrosse coach. Smith embeds Indigenous culture and traditional practices into coaching, ensuring that her athletes are developing holistically.
In the same release, the Aboriginal Sport circle explained that Fontaine is an international level lacrosse coach from Fort Alexander, Manitoba. His commitment to personal growth and development has been unwavering, these qualities have led him to coach at the North American Indigenous Games, to serving many roles in both Indigenous and mainstream lacrosse associations, to serving as Assistant Coach for Team Poland in the World Junior Lacrosse Championships in 2022. Tyndall’s strives to be a positive influence in the community and with his athletes, regardless of their level of play.
On November 3, 2023, both of the National Indigenous Coaching Award recipients were presented their award at the Petro-Canada Sport Leadership Awards Gala hosted by the Coaching Association of Canada in Calgary, Alberta.
