The mâmawêyatitân centre in Regina recently hosted the Next Gen Wrestling Camp, hosted by Indigenous world-class athletes, Jackson Serna and Hunter Lee.

The two athletes met while competing for Team Canada and wanted to share their world-class skills to inspire the next generation of youth wrestlers in Regina’s North Central neighbourhood.

Serna, who grew up in Los Angeles but is a member of Flying Dust First Nation, now works as the Youth Coordinator for the Regina Treaty/Status Indian Services (RTSIS). He said he returned to his mother’s hometown of Regina to be be the kind of role model he wishes every young person had.

“There’s not a lot of... I don’t want to say role models, but there’s not a lot of people that youth, especially here in North Central Regina can look up to,” Serna said. “That’s my whole reason for coming back to Regina in the first place.”

Serna wanted to make wrestling training accessible to youth, because he knows how hard the journey to becoming a Team Canada member could be.

“I wrestled collegiately in the States, then heard about nationals in Saskatoon in 2019. I didn’t have a passport, so I flew to Seattle, bussed to the Canadian border, walked across with my Treaty card,” he said.

His determination paid off as he went on to represent the country that same year – along with two world championships and took home two silvers in the Pan American Games, where he eventually met Lee.

The co-instructor Hunter Lee of the Next Gen Wrestlers Camp is from Muskoday First Nation and has his fair share of accolades and challenges to overcome in the sport. He began training in his back yard of small-town Flin Flon Manitoba, and eventually travelled the world to compete.

“We didn’t have too much in terms of wrestling there,” Lee said. “It was me and my brother. We would just train in our backyard... We were both our age group world medalists in wrestling. We kind of did a lot of that just training in our backyards with each other and making do with what we could,” he went on to say.

Lee is a Junior World bronze medalist, Senior Pan American Games bronze medalist, multiple-time national champion, and is currently undefeated as a professional fighter - with an impressive 4 wins and 0 losses. Lee also has his sights set on joining the UFC in the near future.

Both Serna and Lee say giving back through wrestling is a responsibility that they want to fulfil.

“You get good at something, and then you give back to the people coming up, because people helped you when you were younger,” Lee said. “I’m always happy to come in and give back to kids who are kind of in a similar spot to me, just trying to train with what they have.”

For Serna, the partnership with mâmawêyatitân centre, Top Gun Wrestling Club, and the City of Regina is his way of making an effort to keep youth engaged with the sport and community.

“What I hope wrestling brings to the community is it keeps kids in school and on the right path,” Serna said. “Wrestling gave me a high school diploma, got me into post-secondary and I wouldn’t have had that without it.”

Serna explained that he wants to have more camps just like the one hosted over the weekend and even plans to create a regular wrestling club.

“Wrestling usually costs money when it’s outside school, but this will be free for the community for Indigenous youth and any youth in North Central,” he excitingly added.

One of the young wrestlers at the camp, Everly Bear, was experiencing the sport for the first time.

“I thought wrestling was all about hitting,” she said. “But I’ve learned a lot of techniques. The instructors are really sweet, and they’re not pushing you.”

For now, Serna and Lee plan to continue their coaching careers with youth in Regina, with a project already underway for another camp this fall. Until then, the pair of Indigenous athletes are inspiring youth across Canada in their own ways.