Manitoba's U18 boys football team strikes gold in national Indigenous championship

It was a gold medal for Manitoba's Indigenous High-Performance Team at the 2025 Indigenous Football Canada U18 Men's National Championships in Winnipeg last week.

A tight, competitive championship game between Team Alberta and Team Manitoba led to the home team picking up the victory 42-34, the first time Manitoba has won gold in a national tackle football tournament since 2006.

This was quarterback Ben Waters's second time competing for the U18 Indigenous Cup.

"The whole thing is incredible, like the support that we've gotten and like seeing us all grow as a team and just the whole culture around it, it's just been unbelievable," said Waters, who is Red River Métis.

Some of that support comes from the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, who have helped with costs for the team and provided jerseys with 'Manitoba' in Cree syllabics across the chest and the Blue Bombers starblanket logo on the shoulders.

Football Manitoba also had a design drawn up for the tournament logo by Kiera Bowley, an athlete from Manitoba's U18 Girls football team.

Fans, friends, and family descended on St. Vital Mustangs Field in Winnipeg for the third Indigenous U18 National Championship. It was the first time that the tournament, featuring teams from Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Northern Ontario, was held in Manitoba.

Trenton Bourassa, a member of Opaskwayak Cree Nation, said it was an honour to represent the province in football at an national tournament.

"We have hockey and lacrosse, obviously, but it's great that the football industry is growing as well, and I can't wait to just see how the tournaments go on from here," he said.

Russell Wallace, head coach of the team and a citizen of the Manitoba Métis Federation, said the team's victory goes