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Company of the White Wolf hosts sword swinging Labour Day event in Dawson

The Labour Day long weekend featured longswords in Dawson City. Yukon’s Company of the White Wolf displayed their medieval combat prowess with the inaugural Dawson Labour Day Tourney over the weekend.
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The Labour Day long weekend featured longswords in Dawson City.

Yukon’s Company of the White Wolf displayed their medieval combat prowess with the inaugural Dawson Labour Day Tourney over the weekend.

Four fighters from Whitehorse travelled north to compete with three White Wolf teammates from Dawson in a demonstration event.

“The Dawson guys come down for training once a month usually through the winter, so we want to go up there as well so they’re not always having to be the ones coming down,” said Land Pearson, president of the Yukon Medieval Combat Group. “We had an event there in April and a lot of guys came out and really enjoyed watching the show, so we thought it would be a good time to try to do it again. There was also the Dawson softball tournament, so we were trying to draw crowds from there and trying to get people interested in it.”

Don Hornby, Dale Braga and Jordan Profeit placed first, second, third in the longsword. Land Pearson, Profeit and Hornby took first to third in the sword and shield.

In the pro fights — a more vicious form in which kicks and punches score points as well as weapon strikes — Pearson beat Hornby 63-42 and Profeit topped Braga 41-22.

“We also did a new (event) where we had a free-for-all. Six people in the ring, but no teams. So as soon as you engage a guy, you’ve got to keep your head on a swivel because somebody is going to come take both of you out,” said Pearson, who won the event.

The Company of the White Wolf (CWW) is really building a name for itself.

CWW fighters went undefeated in three disciplines at the Battle of Brooks last month in Alberta. Pearson fought to gold in the sword and shield and CWW captain Jose Amoedo claimed gold in the longsword. Pearson, Amoedo, with teammates Lance Gadsby, John Hanuluk and Braga, teamed up for gold in the melees (group fights).

Pearson also won gold at a national tournament in Montreal this past February, earning a spot at the International Medieval Combat Federation World Championships in Portugal at the end of May. Eight members of White Wolf competed at the worlds. Amoedo represented his native Spain and won silver in the men’s polearm competition.

The Company of the White Wolf will put their sport on display as the halftime show at Saturday’s roller derby bout, Smackdown in Derby Town, between the Yukon Roller Girls and Squamish’s Sea to Sky Sirens. The derby starts at 7 p.m. at the Mount McIntyre Rec Centre.

“Dawson is just working to get some space so they’ll have regular training in a public setting, so a lot of people are coming out wanting to check it out,” said Pearson. “If we can get a few more people from there we’ll be a bit more solid team. Within the territory they’ll almost be a team to themselves.”

Contact Tom Patrick at tomp@yukon-news.com