by By Dan Ninham, contributing writer
Cree DeFoe is from the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa and will be a junior next school year at Stratford HS in Wisconsin.
DeFoe is on the high school cross country and track teams. He competed at the North American Indigenous Games 2023 in Halifax, Nova Scotia. DeFoe also competed in the Wisconsin state cross country meet last fall of 2022.
DeFoe represented not only his family and tribe at the NAIG 2023 but he also represented Team Wisconsin on the podium. He placed second in the 16U 1200m in 3:21.49, third in the 16U 2000m in 6:04.74, and fourth in the 16U 800m in 2:08.51.
“By being indigenous everything I do is for my ancestors who survived and fought for who I am today,” said DeFoe. “At practice I take every day serious and at meets I put cedar in my shoes for my ancestors.”
“I’m now preparing for cross country season, and how I’m going to get there is training with my coach and my personal trainer,” said DeFoe.
“My main mentor is my dad Chris Smart,” said DeFoe. “He’s my main mentor for a reason … always reminding me of what I should be doing and pushing me 24/7 to be better in every way possible.”
“Sam Lucio is my personal trainer he gives me all of the tips and how I run to help me improve,” said DeFoe.
“My experience in NAIG was very cool and great,” said DeFoe. “I learned many things about myself I didn’t even know. I just had to dig deeper and one big thing I learned is how you do in your race can greatly depend on how bad you want it. I never thought I could out kick someone at the end but it turned out I had the best kick there.”
“The area where we competed was very special and different and I’ll most likely never experience something like that again in my life. And for that I’m very grateful for the experience overall,” added DeFoe.
“Cree has been a great runner for me at Stratford HS,” said Coach Tiny Michalski. “He runs both track and cross country. Cree to me is an old school runner. He enjoys the sport and loves to run.”
“My biggest problem with Cree is getting him to take off days and easy days (because) he wants to go all the time. He leads by example with is work ethic and his off season commitment to get better. With two years left the possibility is endless for what he can do.”
Christopher Smart is Cree’s father. He talked about his son’s sports ability. He said, “Cree has the ability to connect with everyone and more so in sports. He is able to avoid frequent competitive conflict with teammates and the dominance presents which often occurs in sports.”
“Cree has naturally developed good conflict-resolution skills and truly cares about his teammate, even in a competitive environment. For example, for years, Cree would run with teammates and intentionally avoid taking first or defeating them and always remaining behind to avoid conflict. Many times I would ask him, and when he was ready for his four-day fast (vision), he told me he did this to help them thrive and succeed and ‘they needed it more than me’,” added Smart.
Samuel Lucio is Cree’s Personal Trainer. He said, “Cree’s strongest attribute is his ‘ambition’ to achieve his greatest potential. Other athletes notice it and try to emulate his exertions. He displays it in every training session and in every competition he participates in.”
Cree is training each day to achieve his running potential.
