By Sarah Rae

Poundmaker students hear from former NHL star

Jun 17, 2016 | 5:11 PM

A former NHL star wants young people to know success didn’t just fall into his lap. 

Reggie Leach, who played 13 seasons in the NHL and helped the Philadelphia Flyers win the Stanley Cup in 1975, spoke to students at Chief Poundmaker School in Poundmaker Cree Nation on Friday, June 17.

He said youth don’t realize how many First Nations people have successfully played professional hockey. “It gives the kids the opportunity to see that there are successful First Nations hockey players out there, that we’re willing to give back.”

Leach faces extreme racism during his time on the ice, with people calling him “dirty Indian,” and he and his friend Bobby Clarke were referred to as “Lone Ranger and Tonto.”

What kept him going was a coach who told him the reason people were singling him out and yelling at him was because he was so good, Leach told the students.

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He said the most important message to send young people is if they don’t work hard, they won’t go too far.

“It’s going to be a tough life for them if they don’t work at it and they don’t have education…It’s not only on First Nations, it’s right across the country with our young people, a lot of them don’t have an education,” he said.

Leach said he finds speaking to young people more rewarding than when he played in the NHL.

“I’m always going to be Reggie Leach the hockey player, but I think myself, as an elder now, it’s my responsibility to get the message out about all the mistakes I made as a young person and a young adult and I think it’s very important for me to talk to these kids face to face,” he said.

sarah.rae@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @sarahjeanrae