by By Dan Ninham (Oneida)
“I am from Warroad, Minnesota and I identify as Ojibwe,” said Shalese Snowden. “My dad is Jaimie Snowdon and he is Ojibwe/Cree from the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa and my mom is Tara Boucha and she is Ojibwe from Animakee Wa Zhing 37 First Nation. My Ojibwe name is Zhibaabinesiik (World-Wind Thunderbird).”
“Currently I am a senior Legal Studies and Indigenous Studies double major at the University of Wisconsin-Superior,” said Shalese. “After graduation I plan to attend law school on a Indian Law track. I eventually would like to work for Native tribal nations as an attorney. I have a passion for the issue of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, and I would like to work as an active member of the expansion of criminal prosecution jurisdiction for tribal nations to prosecute these crimes. At the end of my legal career I’d like to serve as a tribal judge. My academic advisor and professor Nathan LaCoursiere already refers to me as ‘Judge Snowdon’ in class.”
Shalese said: “My golf team just finished up their season this past weekend. We finished fourth in the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference. The weather conditions of 40-50 degrees and rain made it hard to compete so we all shot scores higher than what we had hoped. Overall, we had a fairly competitive season and played well in some new competitive meets we attended this year. The major strengths I bring to my team is sportsmanship, encouragement and competitiveness.”
“Golf is a very mental sport so it is important to be positive, encouraging and check in with myself, my teammates and even the girls I play rounds with so we all can be more competitive and play well,” said Shalese. “My assistant coach Kayla Chilstrom jokes that before she can even get a word in on the course, I am asking how my other teammates are doing. I have been awarded our Conference’s Sportsmanship Award two years in a row for our team so I think others recognize this as well.”
“The tribal core values that define me as a student athlete are respect and humility. Respect has taught me to have respect for myself, coaches, teammates and the game. Humility is another tribal core value that defines me as a student athlete. I was always taught to be humble and give thanks to my teammates for helping my performance,” added Shalese.
“Athletics has helped me on my journey because it has helped me be more focused and diligent with my studies,” said Shalese. “At UW-Superior our athletics GPA is higher than the rest of the campus average because the university really embodies that we are “students, then athletes”. They strive to make sure we have a great athletics experience but also gain a Bachelors degree in our time at UWS. As student-athletes, we definitely embody this idea as well.”
“The academic advice I give to future college athletes is to take academics seriously. College sports is very time consuming so it is really important to be organized and stay on top of your classes. Things such as having good relationships with your professors, and knowing where the library is, are things that are going to help you have a great athletic and academic experience,” added Shalese.
Shalese said: “My parents have been the biggest positive influencers of my student athletics career. They have given endless support, love and encouragement throughout all sports I have played. Their biggest lesson however has been that academics will take you farther than sports and to always give the most value to how you perform in the classroom. Their support in my academics has been by far the greatest influence. I will be very proud to represent them and my community as a Native graduate.”
“Another positive influencer has been my high school volleyball coach Jeremy Culleton. His motto throughout volleyball was “Be Great” which meant to be great in every aspect of our lives. I try apply this to all areas of my life,” added Shalese.
“Shalese Snowdon is a special athlete and person,” said Jeremy Culleton, Warroad HS volleyball head coach. “I was blessed to have had the opportunity to coach such a great young lady. Shalese was a leader with our volleyball team and our school she led off an on the court. She holds many values that as a coach we love to see, including hard worker, competitive, good teammate great player. But it is the small things that we remember, compassion, integrity, strong morals and team values. I have a motto or coaching philosophy ‘Be Great’. Its simple ‘Be Great’ in all you do. ‘Be Great’ when dealing with teammates, when dealing with parents, family and siblings. ‘Be Great’, in the community, in the Gym, in the classroom just ‘Be Great’. We all know what our ‘Great’ looks like. Strive to ‘Be Great’ in all we do, every action and interaction. No surprise to me that she is a success and she will do great things, and I am excited to see it unfold.”
“I have a funny story about when I took her out golfing, all she wanted to do was drive the cart,” said Jaime Snowden. “She was about 10 years old. She would hit the ball about 30 feet, hop back on the cart and drive to her ball, and then do it all over again. She wasn’t focused on the ball at all, just the cart. Shalese extensively focused on hockey and volleyball growing up with volleyball being her first love. She was a two-year varsity captain in volleyball and a multi-sport athlete. We spent many hours in the car driving to JO volleyball and AAA hockey tournaments, not including all her events from the regular seasons. It was sports 24/7 for Shalese. She loved to compete and was tough as nails, many times competing through some difficult injuries. In small towns the best athletes have play more than one sport in order to field competitive teams. Shalese also played softball for a while and took second place in the state while being on the Robotics team. Warroad has since won two state championships in robotics. Shalese was also a wiz in the classroom, earning all academic honors all four years in high school. She was originally recruited to play volleyball at UW-Superior and could have played hockey there too. I guess eventually playing golf allowed her to keep competing and also excel in school because the golf schedule chimed with her academic schedule better.”
“Shalese started golf as a 11th grader,” said Tara Boucha. “She had never golfed at all before that. She came home one day from school and told me she was going to try golf and said she had signed up to join the high school golf team, instead of playing softball. I think I might have said something like, ‘so you’ve never golfed before but you joined the golf team?’ We laughed and I said, ‘Ok. That’s good, as long as you are being active and participating in a spring sport I don’t care which one it is, the more important thing is to just be active doing something.”
“Shalese caught on fairly quickly and enjoined that golf was more of an individual sport. Anyone that knows Shalese knows that she is a bit of a perfectionist…so I knew that she was going to set her mind to improve quickly,” added Tara.
