Handgames tourney draws hundreds
Twelve teams vie for victory
in Wrigley's $50,000 tournament
April Hudson
Northern News Services
Thursday, September 1, 2016
PEHDZEH KI/WRIGLEY
A long weekend of handgames culminated on Aug. 28 with a victory for one of the teams from Pehdzeh Ki First Nation.
Germain Eyakfwo, left, Patrick Adzin Jr. and Mitchell Naedzo wearing the black hat with the blue vest play for second place in the front row. - April Hudson/NNSL photos
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The $50,000 handgames tournament drew 12 teams to Wrigley for three days beginning Aug. 12. Players aged 14 and older came from all over the Northwest Territories to play, joining teams from the Deh Cho and elsewhere accompanied by hundreds of community members.
Teams came from Gameti, Behchoko, Deline, Tulita, Dettah and Fort Liard to join at least four teams from Wrigley for the event.
Competitions had 21 sticks per game and three tiers.
A Wrigley team captained by Ethan Cli came out on top and seized the $18,000 first-place prize while Andrew Adzin's team came in second and claimed $12,000.
Emile Liske's team came in third for a prize of $8,000 while Darwin Norwegian's team won the fourth-place prize of $6,000.
Hunter Mantla and Roman Lamouelle took the fifth and six places with prizes of $4,000 and $2,000 respectively.
Patrick Adzin Jr., who played on the team that got second place, said his best game of the tournament was a match against the Bingo Players, whose team list included Emile Liske, Brad Sangris, Ernie Goulet, Traven Nitsiza, Qualin Jeremick'ca, Quinn Rabesca, Colin Beaulieu, Dallas Roche and Boris Eyakfwo.
"I won 11 sticks (in that game)," Adzin said, "and the captain of the other team came across and started drumming beside me."
Adzin's team played against the Bingo Players for second place and won their game before losing in the final match of the tournament against Ethan Cli's team.
Adzin said his team's second-place win was made sweeter by the fact they lost their first game of the tournament against Roman Lamouelle. That relegated them to the second tier where they won three games before another loss pushed them to the third tier.
"It feels great," he said.
"We went (to the third tier) and we did a comeback."
The weekend included a canteen, meals for players and a Bingo fundraiser.
