'So many emotions': Saskatoon Blades hire Indigenous former player as assistant coach

Ashley Callingbull, left, and Wacey Rabbit are the newest hires of the Saskatoon Blades. (Submitted photo)

Former Saskatoon Blades player Wacey Rabbit has been named an assistant coach for the Saskatoon Blades.

“I’m really excited,” he said. “There’s just so many emotions going through my head.”

Rabbit was planning on returning to coach a British Columbia Junior Hockey League team in Alberni Valley.

“If any other team in the league or any other team in hockey really, asked me to do this I probably wouldn't have left. The Blades was something really special,” Rabbit said.

Rabbit spent four seasons with the Blades from 2002-06 before winning the 2007 Memorial Cup with the Vancouver Giants. He was born in Lethbridge and is a member of the Kainai First Nation. His hope is to help give back to the Saskatoon Indigenous population.

“The province has grown the game for Indigenous players. I just want to come back and be a part of that and help in any way I can,” Rabbit said.

Rabbit says having an Indigenous person on the bench gives Indigenous people someone to identify with. He remembers when he was younger watching fellow Indigenous player Shane Peacock play for the Lethbridge Hurricanes.

“Seeing someone that kind of came from the same background that looked like me, that meant the world to me,” he said.

Joining him is his wife Ashley Callingbull, a 2015 former Mrs. Universe pageant winner, who is from Enoch Cree Nation. She will be serving as a brand ambassador for the Blades and the Saskatchewan Rush.

“I want to create more partnerships and more opportunities for other Indigenous peoples,” she said. “I can actually make a difference because the work that I do is usually with kids that are at risk or women that are escaping domestic violence.”

She hopes to be talking at schools and at different shelters, organizations, and within the community.

“It’s so important for Indigenous peoples to see other Indigenous peoples rising because it’s so rare to see us in these spaces.”

University of Saskatchewan Indigenous studies professor Priscilla Settee says she was thrilled when she heard the news of the couple being hired by the Blades.

She said they'll serve as role models for upcoming generations and their hiring could help dispel racism, which she says exists in the game of hockey.