'We came together': Lore of the Lebret Eagles still alive to this day, 30 years later

Lebret Eagles legacy flying high, 30 years later The Lebret Eagles were the first team in Junior A to be First Nations owned and operated. Brady Lang takes a look at the team's history.

As Lawrence Bigknife flipped the light switches of the old Eagledome, he shared memories of the years past at the on-reserve rink, located a few steps away from the Village of Lebret.

The long-time Eagledome caretaker spoke of lacrosse, which now lines the areas where the blue and red lines were once sprayed down, welcoming another hockey season.

Bigknife spoke of the numerous tournaments, figure skating groups, and the teams from surrounding areas like Fort Qu’Appelle and Balcarres coming out to skate, all which is still vivid in his memories.

But one memory stands out more than the rest, the old former Junior A Hockey Club, Bigknife’s beloved Lebret Eagles.

“I miss it,” he told CTV News in early May.

“People really enjoyed this rink, when it was open … [The Lebret Eagles] meant a lot for the community.”

Bigknife’s memories of the team mirror the thoughts of many Star Blanket Cree Nation members.

“It kept me employed … it was really something to enjoy, it was always a packed house, you could see (fans) all the way around,” he said, pointing to the now empty seating of the Eagledome, which hasn’t housed hockey since 2013, due to an ice plant failure.

20 years before the doors closed one final time on the Eagledome, it was a large celebration on the grounds of the former Qu’Appelle Indian Residential School.

Overlooking Mission Lake, reporters gathered to usher in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League’s (SJHL) 13th team at the time, the Lebret Eagles.

“I remember the day we had a press conference … there was a lot of press there. There was a lot of people that came and were excited,” said Star Blanket Chief Michael Starr, who smiled recollecting the old memories on May 13th, 1993.

“In my mind, it was a very early first example of reconciliation.”

The early ideas for the club weren’t like other expansion teams in the SJHL. Instead, it was a thought and a push to bring both Indigenous and non-Indigenous players to the forefront, playing elite, high-level hockey on reserve, as the first team in Junior A hockey to be wholly First Nations owned, operated, with games played on-reserve lands in the Whitecalf subsidiary of Star Blanket Cree Nation.

“I remember talking to Noel Starblanket … we brought the Indigenous people, the non-First Nations players, and community together, and that’s how we felt. We’d help erase that, we’d help eliminate that (divide). Having said that, (racism) was still a part of it. We went into different towns and we’d play against different teams, we’d still feel that,” said Chief Starr.

“There was a lot of emotion … you could even hear it. Sometimes, the arenas were divided. But then there was some people that welcomed us, the teams when we got together and we didn’t look at racism, we didn’t look at that — we came together in a good way.”

The first year of the Eagles was a bit rushed, admitted Chief Starr.

At the time, he was a Councillor on Star Blanket, and his portfolio surrounded youth and recreation, and the Lebret Eagles themselves.

He’d travel with the team, and helped oversee operations.

The executives of the club were also Indigenous, with the late Noel Starblanket acting as the team’s president.

Looking back at the first year, even the jerseys the team played with on night one, they’d soon be replaced with the Eagles’ crest many know and cherish to this day.

“These were the original jerseys, they didn’t have time to do a logo … they didn’t put it on there, then they thought it was too cartoonish,” Chief Starr said with a laugh, holding a photo of the original team in the Eagledome lobby.

Of those on the team in the early days, they included right winger Carlin Nordstrom. He was the first player chosen by the Eagles in the 1993 dispersal draft after spending the 1991-92 season with the Battlefords North Stars.

Nordstrom would go on to score 49 goals in his first year with the club, which he believes spring boarded him to the next level of hockey, Division 1 in the NCAA with Western Michigan University.

“I felt very fortunate … great group of people there at the time,” Nordstrom said of year one. “Just a lot of buzz, to be a part of that, really special.”

Without his time in Lebret, Nordstrom said he isn’t sure if he would have obtained his goal in hockey, playing in the NHL — something that came to fruition in the fall of 1991-92 as he skated in his first training camp with the Ottawa Senators.

Moving forward in his career, Nordstrom has his own business surrounding public speaking to Saskatchewan youth, along with hockey camps and land based learning surrounding wellness.

He said during his public speaking engagements, he used to get questions consistently about his time with the famed Eagles.

“It still amazes me to this day, how many people in this province will say, ‘I remember, I was in Lebret,’ or ‘I went to school in Lebret,’ or ‘I watched you in Lebret,’” he said.

Watching hockey in Lebret was like no other, either, according to many fans who spent time in the Eagledome.

From the raucous crowds, to the impacts of the booths over top of the players benches, to the stands that stretch around the ice surface, it was a barn with a life of its own.

That’s something still vivid in the memory of Don Chesney, who was an assistant coach for the club’s first four seasons before returning in 2000-01 to be the head coach of the Eagles.

“It was a great atmosphere in there, it was just hopping. The rink was just going crazy — great memories for me as a coach down there,” he said.

Chesney said the trick he used was being ready for anything and everything, recalling an evening where he was thrown on stage at a fundraiser where country music star Mark Chestnutt was performing, because the regular host hadn’t shown up.

“Just jump in, and do it — make it work,” he said.

“I think the Lebret Eagles were really a first class team to get things going … I think a lot of progress has been made since then.”

He said coaching the team, he had to be even more of a relaxed coach. One afternoon at practice, he noticed the players were all sluggish, and couldn’t understand why.

He finally asked, and when he did, it changed the way he operated the team.

“Some nights I’d come back to the rink at 10:30 … and I found out the guys were going onto the ice from 9:30 to 11, having scrimmage games dressed up in different things,” he said.

“So then I said, ‘we don’t have to practice two hours in the afternoon if you’re practicing two hours at night.”

Chesney coached the club to one of its most successful seasons, reaching the south finals before losing to Weyburn.

The team was more successful than not, making the playoffs in seven of the team’s eight years in the SJHL.

They finished with an above 500 record overall, but the good times in Lebret didn’t last forever.

In fact, the 2000-01 team Chesney coached would be the last in the history of the club.

It folded the year following, leaving many wondering, ‘What if?’ Within the community and surrounding area.

It wasn’t the SJHL who made the final decision, either. Chief Starr said it was the band, due to financial struggles ongoing with the team.

He said in its eight year history, the Eagles never hit its $500,000 budget, instead sometimes doubling the budget, according to those connected to the team throughout its history.

Following the announcement of unmarked graves found on the old residential school site, Chief Starr told CTV News his next steps in his community healing, and he pointed to a new wellness centre on reserve, coupled with the revival of the Eagledome.

Since 2013, it’s sat dormant, with the exception of the odd event and lacrosse.

When asked about the future of the Eagledome and the Lebret Eagles possible revival alongside it, Chief Starr turned his head with a grin, and a hopeful outlook.

“There’s potential, and maybe, a dream,” he said.

That dream would be supported by many within Lebret, the valley, and its surrounding areas. But nowhere as strongly as Star Blanket Cree Nation.

You can watch the full story of the Lebret Eagles debuting on Indigenous Circle Sunday night, across Saskatchewan.