Comeback Kids: Knights dominate district NYO competition

HOUSTON — Whether it’s holding on to a slippery fish or giving a whale hunter’s signal, chances are the Colony High School Native Youth Olympics athletes are up to the task.

The Knights were far and away the winners of the 2015 Native Youth Olympics Valley district meet at Houston Middle School this weekend, claiming 45 points in the men’s and women’s 10 events.

Two athletes earned seven of those 11 wins: senior Teyah Clark and junior Jesse Kurtz.

Clark and Kurtz are not new to the NYO scene, having competed since middle school, but Kurtz is new to the team, from Anchorage.

Previously a wrestler and more recently a basketball player, Kurtz has a competitive edge but is calm and collected in the games.

First-year Colony coach Tim LeCount said Kurtz was a bit shy at first, hanging around the team until LeCount approached him and asked if he had done NYO before.

“A little,” he said.

But soon it became clear that Kurtz was being a little too modest.

“He started practicing with us and we were like, ‘yeah, you’ve done NYO before,’” LeCount said.

Kurtz took first in four events, second in one, and third in the two-foot high kick on Saturday.

Although he participates in NYO for fun and competition — he hopes to compete at the World Eskimo Indian Olympics this summer — Kurtz said the culture of the games is just as important.

“Our ancestors had to do this to survive, not just for a game or competition,” Kurtz said.

The Indian stick pull, for example, signifies the practice of gripping a slippery fish by the tail — and securing it for food. In the game, competitors face opposite directions and grip each end of a tapered wooden stick, coated in Crisco to mimic fish slime.

The two-foot high kick also harkens back to age-old Alaska Native culture. When people returned from a whale hunt empty handed, they would toss someone into the air. That person would kick both feet up to signal to the nearby villagers that they wouldn’t need any help carrying meat home.

Clark said she tends to think of these aspects of the games once the meet is over.

“Once I’m in the zone of competing, it’s just a competition. But as soon as I’m done, I always think, this is what I’m actually doing — the history’s there and I understand it,” she said.

Clark took first in the one-foot high kick, the Alaska high kick and the one-hand reach. She also placed second in the two-foot high kick behind Mat-Su Career and Technical High School senior Allison Qualls.

As a basketball player, Clark, like Kurtz, knows NYO as an athlete, not just as a youth with Alaska Native heritage. And being an athlete, she knows there’s a lot of talent in the Valley not yet being dedicated to NYO.

“There are a lot of people out there that are really good athletes and if they would just try (NYO) they could be really good,” Clark said.

“I feel like, if you’re an athlete, you should know about NYO,” she added.

And many do. Unlike the WEIO, NYO is open to non-Native competitors, as well as those with Native heritage.

In example, senior Keith Shepard — who won the seal hop yesterday — has no Alaska Native heritage, but is one of the “core four” of the Colony team, LeCount said. Clark, Alexis Roycroft-Ayonayon and captain Kayla Olhausen — the “student coach:” and “driving force behind the entire team,” LeCount said — make up the rest of the core as the few who have been with the team the longest.

Last year, it was just those four who attended the district competition. The team tied for last place.

This year, they added 10 athletes to their team, and won.

“I’ve been very blessed with some amazing kids,” LeCount said. “It’s really exciting for me to watch (the competition) and know it’s their hard work that got them here.”

LeCount has a nine-year history of coaching track and cross country, but hadn’t thought about coaching NYO until he started teaching Indian Education Act classes at Colony. At first, he was worried he wouldn’t know how to coach a sport he’d never competed in. But he soon found that, with the core four at his side, he could coach them to success.

“The kids here welcomed me and taught me, and the rest is encouragement,” LeCount said.

Apparently he encouraged well. Olhausen won the stick pull, Cheyanne Terwilliger won the girls’ seal hop, and Kacey Gage won the two-foot high kick for the Colony boys on Saturday.

Kurtz will compete in a total of six events at the state meet next weekend, Clark will compete in four, Gage will compete in three, and Roycroft-Ayonayon will compete in two.

Complete results were not available at press time.

Contact Caitlin Skvorc at 352-2266 or caitlin.skvorc@frontiersman.com.