The Makwa Sahgaiehcan Falcons senior boys, pictured here with their 2A provincial silver medals. (Facebook/Makwa Sahgaiehcan First Nation School)

By Martin Martinson

Volleyball Hardware

Makwa Falcons senior boys reflect on provincial silver medal

Dec 1, 2023 | 9:00 AM

The Makwa Sahgaiehcan Falcons senior boys’ volleyball team recently brought home a silver medal at 2A provincials in Pambrun and Ponteix, SK.

Makwa opened their tournament with straight-sets wins over Birch Hills (25-14; 25-14), Kincaid (25-22; 25-17), and Moose Jaw’s Cornerstone (25-20; 26-24) through round-robin play.

Advancing to the playoff rounds from there, the team then bested Muenster in three sets (23-25; 25-16; 15-8) of the quarterfinals, and MJ Cornerstone (25-21; 25-13) in the semis, to punch their ticket to the finals against Saskatoon Christian.

Despite the loss in the finals (25-18; 25-19), the silver medal finish can only be seen as a resounding success for the Falcons’ program, coming in their return to provincials for the first time in over a decade.

“We were kind of the underdogs, as it’s been probably close to 12-to-15 years since Makwa has been to provincials,” coach of the team, Tony Fineblanket said. “For some of [the players] it’s their last year, so they wanted to kind of go out with a bang and come out swinging so as long as they tried hard enough that was all that really mattered no matter what place they got.”

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The momentum for the Falcons’ season can be traced back largely to the start of the schedule and a big tournament win at Maidstone’s ‘Mega Volley’ tournament, which saw the team beat Wilkie in the final.

From there, Makwa remained at or near the top of their tournaments in Unity, Lloyd, and onwards, building their confidence as a group into the final weekend.

Jayrol Kiseyinewakup and Acelin Brown are a pair of seniors from this year’s Falcons team and spoke to meadowlakeNOW about what it meant to close out their high school careers with the provincial hardware.

“This was a pretty cool experience, and I’m glad we went out in style,” Kiseyinewakup said, adding that it was “a special moment,” to be part of the team to bring the school back into provincial competition, having played Falcons’ volleyball since his Grade 7 year.

Brown, who joined the team just this season, added, “I’m just glad I got to be a part of that with them. It was really a big achievement for us.”

The Falcons will return to action this weekend at the ‘Battle of the Bands’ in Edmonton, a tournament for First Nations teams from across western Canada. The team is also currently working on fundraising to attend a tournament in Hawaii later in the school year.

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Martin.Martinson@pattisonmedia.com

On X: @MartyMartyPxP1