It was a night of celebration for Elizabeth (Hudon) Tenaski.
Tenaski was inducted into the Prince Albert Sports Hall of Fame in the athlete category at the 33rd annual induction banquet earlier this month. She was also chosen to deliver a speech to the audience on behalf of the entire induction class.
In an interview with the Daily Herald, Tenaski says the night was very special to her.
“It’s such an amazing night. They put a lot of work into it and I feel like everything’s well sought out and it’s really personal. I feel like all the different parts of it are thoughtful and it was nice to sit up there with my husband who I didn’t actually know back when I played soccer. It’s kind of cool to have my worlds collide that way and my little girls in the crowd. Being asked to speak on behalf of the inductees was the cherry on top. It was a nice honor, although I was a little nervous. It was obviously such a great honor to be able to do that. It was an incredible night.”
Tenaski made her mark in the sport of soccer. After starting at the age of five, she would only get better on the field. At the age of 12, Tenaski suited up for the Prince Albert Celtics where she started to make a name for herself. During her five years in a Celtics uniform, Tenaski won the Golden Boot and MVP award for the provincial soccer league in 2004. She was also the Saskatchewan Soccer Association MVP in 2006 and 2007 along with the youth player of the year.
While she starred on the soccer pitch, Tenaski was involved in pretty much any sport she could be a part of. Some other sports she played include softball, track and field and basketball.
She says the skills she learned playing other sports helped her become a better overall athlete.
“Lots of sports translate whether it’s the defensive tactics or spacing or things like that. Track was good for fitness levels. There’s actually lots of similarities with basketball (with) spacing or defensive positioning and things like that. I think that playing other sports helps with your sport technically or tactically but also it helps to keep your sport fresh a little bit. I think people get a little bit burnt out, so I think playing a bunch of different sports helps to kind of keep it fresh. I was lucky that my parents would take me to all of the sports and some people don’t have that luxury, but I think it just made me who I am today to be able to run around and just be constantly playing, usually it was consistently soccer and then another sport on top of that.”
Tenaski took her talents to the national and international stages as well. She suited up for team Saskatchewan at the 2005 Canada Games and was a member of the Saskatchewan team that won bronze. She scored all three goals for Team Sask in a 3-2 win over Quebec in the bronze medal game.
Tenaski also appeared on the international stage as part of the 2005 Saskatchewan Summer Games that traveled to San Diego and played games against teams from California. She also traveled to Germany to compete for Team Canada’s Under-16 team.
Tenaski says the experiences she had with soccer helped teach her life skills that have helped her moving forward.
“I remember my first week of high school, I went away to a national team camp. I was a little nervous that way and catching up on schoolwork and all that kind of thing. I think being involved in sport is good. It just teaches you a lot of good life lessons about how to manage time and personalities and all those kinds of things. It translates pretty perfectly into my profession as a teacher.”
“Just being able to manage relationships within sport, time management and having a strong work ethic. I think those are all things that you kind of learn by being involved in any sport. When it’s at a high level, there’s obviously more of those things that have to go into it. I think it taught me the importance of hard work. It taught me how to get along well with people because you’re working closely with people and there’s differing personalities and you have to kind of just make all those things work.”
sports@paherald.sk.ca
