Kevin Wilson
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Mar 11/02) - With eight years of coaching speed skating under his belt, Dave Gilday is getting ready to take team NWT to the Arctic Winter Games.

The co-coach of NWT's speed skating hopefuls talks about going back to Iqaluit for the first time in 13 years, individual achievement, and whether looking after 16 kids is like herding cats.

Speed skating coach Dave Gilday's kids were both born in Iqaluit, but none of them have been back for 13 years. They're finally getting a chance to see Canada's newest capital again during the Arctic Winter Games. "It's kind of nice for us to be going there." - Kevin Wilson/NNSL photo

Yellowknifelife: How many participants are going from NWT?

Dave Gilday: We've got two juvenile boys from Fort Simpson, we have one juvenile boy from Inuvik, one junior girl from Inuvik, two junior girls from Inuvik, and then we've got 10 Yellowknife kids.

Yellowknifelife: This isn't your first Arctic Winter Games, though, is it?

DG: No, this is my second. The last one was in Whitehorse.

Yellowknifelife: What's it like taking a bunch of 11- to 17-year-old kids off to hang out with a whole bunch of other kids? Is it kind of like herding cats?

DG: Well, actually, the kids are surprisingly easy to deal with. I like to think that we let the older kids make up their minds what they want to do for the day, and we stick pretty close to the younger kids.

The schedule, of course, is around the skating schedule. After that we want to know where they are. One of the things I would hope every coach does is take a parental approach to it -- knowing that they're responsible for the kids, responsible for all the kids having a good time, and the best opportunity to compete.

Yellowknifelife: When did you start getting involved in competitive speed skating?

DG: Oh, about seven or eight years ago I guess. When my son started getting into it. Then I was brought along by the speed skating club.

Yellowknifelife: Was that up here in Yellowknife?

DG: Yes.

Yellowknifelife: So initially, it was parental involvement, and then it developed into a lingering affection for the sport?

DG: It was a classic example. The kids wanted to do it. The people running the club said

'would you like to help out', and what I learned from it is a sport I wish I'd learned about 40 years ago.

Yellowknifelife: What's the appeal?

DG: Well, I think for kids, there are several aspects. Not everyone's a team sport person, they want to be in individual sports. I know lots who race for that reason, and that's a reason I really like because it allows you to achieve to your level of competence. Then there's just the thrill of competition. The short track is an on-the-edge thing. You've got four skaters on the ice together, hopefully of equal competence in pretty tight quarters to be pushing around the track at speeds between 30 and 40 km/h.

Yellowknifelife: When were you last in Iqaluit?

DG: Oh, gosh, I think it was 13 years ago. Both my kids were born in Iqaluit. That's why it's kind of nice for us to be going over there.

Yellowknifelife: It must be something else to be going back to Iqaluit, with all the changes in the last few years.

DG: It's exciting to see what the new town is. We haven't seen it since it expanded up towards Apex.

Yellowknifelife: Anything happen at the last games in Whitehorse that sticks out?

DG: To me, one of the real highlights of that games, which is going to carry over to this one, is the number of kids who met with other kids at that game. There was one young kid we first met here in Yellowknife. We ran into him in Whitehorse, and we run into him regularly in Alberta. Yukon kids from the games two years ago came to our camp last year, so we know they're skating, and our kids are looking forward to getting to see them again.

Yellowknifelife: Are you a big believer in sports as a character-building activity?

DG: There's absolutely no question. What you've got, with every skater at the beginning of the year, we ask them to set personal goals. The key to a goal is don't overshoot, really. Then when you set goals, you've got to work to achieve those goals. A real character builder is when you step on the ice and there's nobody there to help you. It's just you, so all your preparation comes down to that race and the kids all get nervous, some more nervous than others, but they've got to deal with their nervousness right there. You're asking them every time they go onto the ice to have a race plan, you know, what am I going to here? So the kids have to really respond to what's confronting them right now, and deal with their nervousness.

Yellowknifelife: Were you born in the North?

DG: No, I came up here from London, Ontario 30 years ago.

Yellowknifelife: Have you always worked for the Department of Education?

DG: No, I bounced around between a few departments.

Yellowknifelife: Is there something in your current incarnation in education that illuminates your sideline as a speed skating coach, or vice versa?

DG: Well, I'm the director of college and career development and one of the big things we try to do here is we're trying to encourage people to set their own goals. We don't tell people what they're going to do, we try to help them make their own decisions what they want to do. I think it's kind of interesting because in skating, I don't want any kid there who doesn't want to be there. Kids don't skate unless they want to be in skating. It's their own will. What we try to do is provide a program that allows them to achieve to the level of accomplishment that they are capable of achieving.

So at work we're saying achieve to your highest level of ability. At skating we're saying achieve to your highest level of ability. In both areas what we're trying to do is set programs in place for them so that they just have to apply themselves. We've got the programs in place, they just have to take advantage of them.