Iqaluit (Aug 14/06) - Some of the greatest moments of Levi Eegeesiak's relatively young life have come through sports.

For instance, he went to Yellowknife for Super Soccer and to Nuuk, Greenland for the Arctic Winter Games.

"We had a blast. It was my first time outside of Canada," he said of the latter trip.

So when he had a chance to work temporarily as a youth counsellor at last week's Nunavut Stars hockey school, he jumped at it. The 20-year-old was responsible for eight youth from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily. He escorted them from the arena to the swimming pool to the Elks Club for lunch and over to the high school for a number of activities.

"It's exciting. We've been having a lot of fun - fun and tiring at the same time," said Eegeesiak.

Wearing a black Nunavut Stars' T-shirt, he's sitting amidst a boisterous group of kids who are intermittently wolfing down macaroni and cheese and trying to make each other laugh. When he's on the ice, he takes part in drills and scrimmages but also monitors the young players' behaviour.

Since some of them are only fluent in Inuktitut, he also acts as a translator, explaining what the coaches want them to do.

"And I try to encourage them to play the hardest they can," he said.

Sports is important for young people's development, he acknowledged. Iqaluit is growing rapidly and kids can get into trouble if they have nothing better to do, he suggested.

Eegeesiak looks comfortable on skates. He played minor hockey from novice through peewee, he said. The game fell by the wayside when he was in high school, where he concentrated on soccer and completed Grade 12 in 2004. Since then he has been employed as a labourer for Kavva Marine Services Ltd. He helps with renovations, moves equipment and cleans up job sites, he said.

He's been thinking about taking some post-secondary courses. Mechanics interests him, as do the culinary arts.

"I think cooking would be fun," he said.

But the cooking and eating on this day are now over. He must take his troupe back over to the Arnaitok arena for more practice after lunch.

On the way there he playfully puts his ballcap on one child's head and scoops the youngster up onto his shoulders, eliciting a wide grin as they walk together to the rink.