A proud Métis living on her Nation’s home territory, Jayme is a mother, lawyer, athlete, coach, and community advocate, who relentlessly uses sport as a vehicle for social change.


During her five years of studying sciences at the University of Winnipeg, Jayme played multiple positions on her university volleyball team, three years of which she served as team captain. She proceeded to pursue law and has been working with and for Indigenous communities in a variety of capacities ever since, one of which was with the National Inquiry in to Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two-Spirit people.


Jayme has been coaching for 19 years. She has represented Manitoba multiple times as an athlete and a coach, most recently in 2017 at the North American Indigenous Games in Toronto, and the Canada Games in Winnipeg where her team won Gold. For a fourth consecutive cycle, she has been once again named the head coach of the Manitoba volleyball team that will attend the 2023 North American Indigenous Games.


Off the court, Jayme is a certified facilitator for the National Aboriginal Coaching Module - a course that, among other things, offers tactics to apply traditional teachings and address racism in sport contexts. Despite the Coronavirus pandemic, she trained more than 50 coaches in this course in 2021. Jayme has also served as President on both the Volleyball Manitoba and Manitoba Aboriginal Sport and Recreation boards, through which she was able to affect change at a policy level.


It is extremely important to Jayme to employ a holistic approach to coaching and to help make sport accessible to Indigenous youth. In 2017, Jayme co-founded Agoojin Volleyball, which is a year-round program that sets a precedent in inclusivity, youth empowerment, celebrating Indigenous talent, and utilizing sport platforms for advocacy. Agoojin has spots designated for rural, northern, and remote Indigenous athletes, incorporates cultural teachings, mentors Indigenous female and two-spirit coaches, and prioritizes a trauma-informed, individualized approach for each member of the Agoojin family.


Jayme is also the head coach of a college volleyball team, the CMU Blazers. Prior to the pandemic, Jayme’s team won the league championship and in 2022 placed 2nd.


Jayme’s relentless dedication to safe, equitable, inclusive, and holistic sport has immensely impacted the volleyball and Indigenous communities in her home province and beyond. Jayme continues to raise the bar in coaching. It comes as no surprise that she has been awarded a number of coaching awards, most notably: Manitoba’s Female Indigenous Coach of the Decade.

Photos:
University of Winnipeg Wesmen, setter; Photo Credit: Kelly Morton Photography
Head Coach, Blazers college female volleyball program; Photo Credit: Canadian Mennonite University