by Glen Korstrom
Northern News Services

NNSL (Mar 16/98) - Twenty years ago Hay River's Lawrence Covert thrilled a home-town crowd when he won an Arctic Winter Games gold.

The 15-year-old wrestler in the 177-pound class pinned his opponent's shoulder blades to the mat for the required five seconds.

"It's well worth it going to the Arctic Winter Games," Covert said March 11 from a truck stop in Caspar, Wyo. "Just for the people you meet."

Today Covert is a 35-year-old father of four children under seven, a man who married home-town Hay River girl Monique Lefebvre and is now a truck driver on the road for three weeks at a time "I love it. I always wanted to do this," he says of driving a truck. "But I always thought my family and friends would laugh."

Still, sometimes on seven-day road trips from Florida to Vancouver he pines to see his family at home in Calgary.

For many young people growing up in small communities, the Games are a chance to compete at a level of competition previously only dreamed of.

"I was in awe," said 1978's 134-pound wrestling silver medallist, Norm Yakeleya, who grew up in Tulita.

"It's to realize when you grow up in a small community that you have the opportunity to go to an event that has people from all over."

Yakeleya, 38, now works as a community facilitator and trainer for workshops on social issues such as addiction. He lives in Hay River with his wife and three children.

At the same games,re Rankin Inlet's John Taipana won three medals.

Taipana coaches winter sports and will be at this year Games. He won several AWG medals from 1974 through 1986. In 1978, he won a gold in rope gymnastics, a silver in the one-foot high kick and a bronze in the one-hand reach.

He married Cecilia, has three children and works as a garbage truck driver for the hamlet.

He also hunts caribou and wolves, and plays hockey.

Today, Taipana is excited about seeing top young athletes competing in his former events. "These younger guys are more agile and they go so much higher than before."