Nome recruited a new NYO team to compete at State
After a season of rebuilding Nome’s Native Youth Olympics team, Nome was represented by nine athletes at the annual State NYO competition held in Anchorage April 20 through 22. Nome NYO Coach Vanessa Tahbone, said six of nine athletes qualified for the state competition this year. However, Tahbone said, there was a time this year when she wasn’t sure Nome would have an NYO team at all. Tahbone explained she “lost” five seniors last year to graduation, plus another athlete, leaving very few returning athletes. They tried to have a pre-season once in January and again in February, but only two athletes showed up both times. There wasn’t enough interest to have a team. Tahbone said it took some networking to finally rustle up a team to compete this year. “(We) did some stuff at the school to get the athletes to join,” she said, explaining that recruiting athletes to NYO has always been about “peer-to-peer” engagement. She explained that students who’ve tried the sport tell their friends who in turn come to practices and see if NYO is for them. Due to this recruitment, Tahbone said they finally were able to put together a team. The new team of nine consisted of two returning athletes and seven new recruits. Athletes included AwaLuk Nichols and Alohna Johnson, the two veterans, and Kade Vandermark, Vivienne Ashley Heers and Chris Smith —all new to the sport. Due to the shortness of the season, Tahbone said, the new team wasn’t able to put on their traditional home meet or travel to other meets. They were, however, ready to practice for State. Tahbone explained a typical day of practice for the NYO team. She puts her team through a full body workout called the NYO Routine: a combination of planking, stretching, and burpees that gradually gets longer and harder as the season progresses. Next comes the Seal Walk and the Lunge Lunge Jump warmups before the athletes start practicing the various NYO events. Tahbone said the team practices two to three events together every day, Monday through Thursday, and then Friday is “agility day” where athletes work on the events they most wish to improve on. They keep score sheets of how much they are improving and how close they are to breaking their personal records. Even though no Nome athletes placed at State this year, Tahbone is still very proud of her team. “All our team did really well,” Tahbone said, adding that it was exciting to see the first-year athletes compete at a state level. She praised the dedication of new NYO athletes, like eighth-grader Chris Smith, who showed immediate interest in the sport and its future events. She said she saw this season as “more of an experience for the students than a competition,” describing it as a season to draw in new students and “give them a reason to commit.” “(It’s) not about placing, it’s not about coming in first. It’s about this experience, just getting into the community for NYO and what it means,” Tahbone said, “The atmosphere and camaraderie is like nothing else.” A couple of athletes from the Bering Strait School District placed at the state competition. Myrah Penayah from BSSD placed third in the Girl’s Wrist Carry and Ourea Busk from BSSD placed fourth in the Alaska High Kick. The BSSD NYO team won the Academic Excellence Award for a team of seven or less.