How soccer survives — and thrives — in a northern Manitoba community

A strong, undying love for soccer has survived generations in Opaskwayak Cree Nation, despite a lack of resources or options for play during the long northern Manitoba winter.

"We don't really have nothing else to do here besides just going outside to play in the soccer field and kick the ball around," Opaskwayak soccer player Ashley Singh-Young, 18, said in an interview.

"So that's what most of our kids do here."

In Opaskwayak, a community where the sport is played even when basic equipment isn't available, the legacy of soccer is also a legacy of resilience.

Playing conditions in Opaskwayak can be bleak. There is nowhere to play in winter and in summer, people frequently invent novel solutions to navigate the minimal resources available to them.

Singh-Young remembers players transforming Tim Hortons cups into shin guards so they could play in a game.

In March, Singh-Young and others from Opaskwayak Cree Nation joined Manitoba member of Parliament Niki Ashton as she advocated for funding for recreational activities in the north. In three years, Canada will co-host the FIFA Men's World Cup, which Ashton says should incentivize the federal government and FIFA to invest in northern soccer.

Singh-Young was first introduced to the sport by her mom when she was eight. A decade later, she wears the same uniform her mother wore as a girl.

Singh-Young's team, OCN Superstars, was created in the late 1990s, and her mother played on that original team.

Current coach Teresa Constant founded the team with her friends when they were teens.

For Constant, her love for soccer almost feels inevitable.

"That's the only sport that I knew — that I grew up with," Constant said in an interview.

Her husband and co-coach Dylon Constant shares a