Alia Drummond is the youngest recipient of this year’s Yukon Outstanding Youth Achievement Awards.

“I was very surprised when I found out I won, mostly because I’m 15 and all the other winners that I saw were like, 17 or 18,” said Drummond. “It’s nice that I’m being recognized for contributing to my community.”

According to a Yukon Government press release, Drummond “is being recognized for her outstanding dedication to sports and recreation in the community of Haines Junction.”

Drummond was selected to compete in the Arctic Winter Games U13 Female Soccer Team in 2020. She supports “other youth through volunteering to lead and coach soccer and hockey practices and clinics. She is a role model to young female hockey and soccer players due to her dedication, hard work, and sportsmanship.”

Drummond isn’t just skilled in the areas of sports. The release added that “She placed first in the 2018 Science Fair for her project on stop motion. Alia also placed first at the 2019 Heritage Fair for her presentation on her great grandmother, and went on to win The People’s Choice Award for Best Graphic Design at the same event.”

Drummond recalled “I’ve been volunteering for my community, like, Haines Junction, for quite a while now and I’ve been doing minor hockey and soccer for 10 years, so I think it just makes sense for me to be able to give back to my community just coaching and volunteering and hopefully encourage the kids that I’m coaching right now to volunteer when they’re older and give back to their community, too.”

Drummond does see herself as a role model for younger girls.

“I definitely try to be with both sports and school. I know when I was younger, there was this girl, Echo Kirk, she grew up in Haines Junction and she was really good at hockey and and I found as a girl, like, younger, there wasn’t many of us playing hockey but knowing that she was playing and she was older, there was just someone I could look up to, so I definitely try to be that for younger girls.”

There’s no question who Drummond attributes her success to. “Definitely my parents. They were both my coaches when we lived in Watson (Lake) and Haines Junction for the past – since I was three. And now they’re driving me into Whitehorse two or three times a week for my hockey practices, which is crazy, especially in the middle of winter. So, yeah, I’m very thankful for them for doing that. They’ve definitely been part of my success in that area.”

Drummond said she has had a few mentors along the way.

“Echo Kirk, just being a girl who has done really well in hockey and she went down south for school. Just, like, a role model and definitely my coaches in Whitehorse like Danny Johnson and Pat Tobler. They are really big on girl’s hockey and they really support that, so it’s been nice being coached by them.”

These days, hockey is, not surprisingly, keeping Drummond busy.

Right now, she’s in the process of trying out for the Arctic Winter Games and Canada Winter Games. Their last tryout is in the middle of October, so she’ll find out if she made the team after that.

“We have a women’s – it’s not really a team, but we just get together once a week and just play games, so it’s not really a team but that’s what we have in Haines Junction right now,” related Drummond.

“But in Whitehorse, I also play for this – this year, we’re doing an all-girls team in the U15 House League, so that’s what I’m doing this year in Whitehorse,” she added.

That team is a female development team.

Drummond has an exciting year of school ahead of her.

“I’m going to school in Haines Junction for this first semester and then for the second semester I’m going to Whitehorse for a Wood Street program called Aces, which I’m really excited for. It’s like an outdoor ed (education) program. You do a whole bunch of trips incorporating your schoolwork around the trips and you just get lots of outdoor experience.”

“There’s a school on Wood Street that they just call the ‘Wood Street School.’

“With this program I’m doing – the outdoor ed program – I’m trying to get biology,” said Drummond. “I’m into marine biology so I’m gonna try to use that and maybe my sports background to get, maybe, a scholarship into a school in the future. That’s kind of my plan but – don’t have many plans, just keep playing hockey and finish high school right now.”

Drummond added “Walking down the hallway, seeing my poster is kind of weird but it’s cool to be recognized and really glad I was able to get nominated and win this award.”