Regina to host 2026 National Aboriginal Hockey Championships
The NAHC, organized by the non-profit Aboriginal Sport Circle and sanctioned by Hockey Canada, features 16 teams — eight male and eight female — made up of bantam and midget-aged Indigenous athletes. The annual event has served as a key platform for Indigenous sport development since 2002, said a Friday news release from the Regina Exhibition Association Limited.
The 2026 tournament will mark the first time Saskatchewan has hosted the championships since 2012, REAL's news release said.
The tournament is "a tremendous opportunity for our province to showcase our commitment to Indigenous sport," Fabian Head, third vice-chief of the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations, said in the release.
The championships create "a space where Indigenous youth can connect with their culture, build lasting relationships, and develop skills that extend far beyond the rink," he said.
The 2026 event will be hosted in partnership with Ochapowace Nation in southeastern Saskatchewan.
Chief Shelley Bear says that reflects the community's focus on youth development through sports and recreation, which she called "vital tools for building confidence, leadership and resilience in our young people."
"When we provide these opportunities, we're not just developing better athletes — we're developing stronger communities and future leaders who carry their cultural pride with them in everything they do," Bear was quoted as saying in the news release.
The NAHC typically delivers more than $1 million in economic impact per category to host communities, according to organizers.
Regina Mayor Chad Bachynski welcomed the announcement, calling the tournament a meaningful event for the city and province.
The event "strengthens the bonds between communities through the spirit of sport," Bachynski said in the press release.
The championship is part of the province's efforts to answer the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's calls to action around sports and reconciliation, REAL's news release said.
Sandra Jackle, president and CEO of the Regina Hotel Association, which is supporting the championships, said the event is an "outstanding celebration of sport and culture" that "strengthens cultural connections and community pride across Canada."
More information on schedules and tickets for the 2026 championships will be released closer to the event.
This year's event is being held in Kamloops, B.C., and wraps up Saturday.
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New York Times
2 days ago
- New York Times
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Giovanni Leoni, the Parma centre-back on his way to Liverpool for an initial £26million ($35.3m), was born less than a month after Cannavaro was presented with the Ballon d'Or in November 2006, so he is too young to have seen him in his prime. Aged only three when Italy's defence of their title ended in a bottom-of-the-table and winless group-stage exit from South Africa 2010 (a point below New Zealand), he was seven when they made it to their most recent World Cup in Brazil, again going out after three first-phase games, beating England but losing to Uruguay and Costa Rica. In truth, producing defenders such as Leoni has never been an issue for Italy in the meantime. It's the Baggios, Tottis, Vieris and Del Pieros they have lacked. Advertisement Leoni, who after only 14 starts in Serie A is already being hastily talked about as a future captain of Italy, grew up in the era of the BBC defence — Leonardo Bonucci, Andrea Barzagli and Giorgio Chiellini — at Juventus. They have been succeeded by Alessandro Bastoni and a late bloomer in Francesco Acerbi as a pair at Inter. It has been a time of European Championship finals lost (2012) and won (2021) and Italian back lines being the bedrock of Champions League runners-up in 2015, 2017, 2023 and 2025. Only one of those great centre-backs played outside of Italy going into their peak years. The reason for that is quite simple. For many Italians, it doesn't get any bigger than playing for one of their country's big three. Few stages are greater than San Siro. Few clubs, historically, guarantee you success like Juventus. Cannavaro, for instance, only moved to Madrid on the back of that World Cup, the Calciopoli scandal and Juventus' subsequent relegation. Chiellini and Bonucci departed Turin in their twilight years for experiences in Los Angeles (for Chiellini) and Berlin then Istanbul. 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He is lesser spotted than Chiellini and Bonucci, and yet both credit him with making them better centre-backs. Both bow to him. When Barzagli retired in 2019, Juventus' manager at the time, Max Allegri, called him 'the professor of defenders'. It chimed nicely with Jose Mourinho's comment about the club being the Harvard of defending. And so for Leoni to draw comparisons with Barzagli at only 18 is no faint praise. It is rare for the big three in Italy to let a talent like him get away, and perhaps there is a parallel to be drawn with Marco Verratti here. Paris Saint-Germain gazumped Juventus in 2012 and Verratti, then a 19-year-old at second-division Pescara, never looked back. Is that what's happening with Leoni? On the one hand, the powerlessness to stop his move reflects the financial state of Serie A and the gulf in spending power between Italy's elite and their English peers. Serie A clubs have spent €860million (£742m; $1bn) gross so far this summer. A fair amount. 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