Magic Sauce at the Native Youth Olympic Games

I have been an athlete all my life participating in in many sports including triathlon, racquetball, and swimming. I come from an athletic family as well; my brothers play ice hockey, run track and field, and participate in long distance cycling, and my father was a football player and martial artist. I have also dedicated nearly two decades of my life to leadership in youth sports through competitive swimming; I have been the head coach of several programs, I have been the assistant coach to many talented head coaches, and I have taught swimming as a stepping stone as well as a lifesaving skill to hundreds of people.

Nothing I have seen thus far prepared me for the athleticism I witnessed from the young people competing in the statewide NYO games.

This year, for the first time, I got to step into an official’s role through Cook Inlet Tribal Council at Alaska’s Native Youth Olympic Games. I officiated at the Anchorage tryouts as well as at the statewide games. I have been fortunate to be a spectator at sporting events during which some of the world’s most recognizable and skilled athletes have competed including NHL hockey players, world-class alpine and cross-country skiers, soccer players with internationally successful careers, and many Olympic swimmers, but nothing I have seen thus far prepared me for the athleticism I witnessed from…