For More Than Herself

Second year, Exercise Science, Kainai High School

Juggling a full course load and playing post-secondary basketball can be a daunting task. But, add a young daughter to the mix and there's little time for anything else for Chase Wells-Creighton.

The five-foot-10 guard had made it work the last two seasons with the Kodiaks, with a lot of support from family, coaches and teammates.

"I didn't think everyone would be this supportive of my daughter and I, especially being a mom and student athlete coming to school every day," said Wells-Creighton. "They understood there might be times I miss practice because of my daughter maybe having a birthday or a doctor's appointment. They've never treated me differently.

"Right away I took her to practice and everyone loved her; everyone is her auntie, basically. Deanna (Simpson, assistant coach) and Ken (McMurray, head coach) would watcher her sometimes when we do drills and Deanna would bring her daughters, who are around the same age as Amara, so she'd have friends to play with."

Wells-Creighton became interested in basketball in Grade 6 in Cardston and played league ball in Grade 7 and 8. After Grade 8 she ventured outside of school ball and played club basketball with the Junior Horns.

"I transferred to Kainai High School in Grade 9 where we won our league. In Grade 10 is when I started playing for Charlton (Weasel Head, head coach), that was the whole reason I wanted to go to Kainai.

"Just being in Kainai was really good for me, staying connected with my community and now much the community comes together in sports for the youth who are involved."

While Covid cut short Wells-Creighton's senior year in high school, she knew she wanted to keep playing at the post-secondary level. There were two schools interested in her, but the other school made her choice an easy one.

"The other school wanted me to redshirt and I felt like I didn't need to. They made it sound like because of where my school was and where I came from that I wouldn't be good enough to play in the league. And academically, they made it feel stereotypical that First Nations couldn't go to school because we aren't smart. That's when Deanna, who was the Kodiaks' head coach at the time, recruited me the same time they hired Ken as head coach."

Wells-Creighton made the Kodiaks in the 2020-21 season, which was basically a write-off due to Covid. She then took two years off to have her daughter.

"In the summer of 2024 I saw Ken at my brother's graduation and he said to me when I'm ready to contact him. I came to tryouts and made the team.

"Right away I was nervous because I was going in there with my daughter, but they never treated me different, never looked at me different."

Wells-Creighton has become a key player on the Kodiaks. She was the second-leading scorer on the team last season, as well as this season through 14 games.

"I think I bring really good leadership to the team because I'm a little more mature than everybody," said Wells-Creighton. "We're really young and I think we need that maturity for everybody, to be able to tell the rookies that it's OK to mess up sometimes, but to lock in.

"I also try to bring a lot of positivity. I try to be that leader that I didn't have when I was growing up on my other teams."

That leadership and positivity comes from her family and Kainai culture.

"My grandfather (Eugene Creighton) played high school basketball at Kainai, which was St. Mary's School back then. My mother also played there, too. We're a really big sports family and every home game my family comes out to support me.

"When I see them they'll tell me they're proud of me, that it's really good that I'm in school and playing basketball and they want their daughters to do the same thing."

While academics, basketball and raising a daughter take up a lot of Wells-Creighton's time, she does have interests off the court.

"I still play a little bit of hockey and during the summer I'm at rodeos travelling with my family, either competing or supporting them. I started barrel racing when I was my daughter's age."

Wells-Creighton is in her second year of Exercise Science at the Polytechnic, which she hopes will lead to a degree in kinesiology at the University of Lethbridge.