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Paddles on the Lake

Darrell Greer
Northern News Services

Baker Lake (Mar 16/05) - Close to 50 youth in Baker Lake learned the finer points of table tennis from one of Canada's top coaches earlier this month.

Attila Csaba, the Canadian national junior team coach, had been scheduled to deliver a workshop in Iqaluit when unforeseen difficulties put the event in jeopardy.

Sport Nunavut sport development manager Kyle Seeley says when it became obvious the Iqaluit event wasn't going to happen, Csaba was asked if he would consider conducting the camp in Baker.

"We decided upon Baker because it had the second-highest number of registrations for this year's table tennis territorial event," says Seeley.

"It was no surprise to us when Attila accepted because he's very supportive of getting a table tennis program going in the North, as has Table Tennis Canada."

Table tennis is a relatively new program in Baker, which began catching on with the opening of the new Jonah Amitnaaq secondary school.

Seeley says the two day skills-development clinic Csaba conducted with the youth was surprisingly intense.

"He was really running the players around the tables and conducting tough drills.

"There was sweat and water bottles everywhere you looked."

Csaba ran two four-hour training sessions each day before opening the floor to a tournament in the evenings.

With about 50 youth participating in the sessions, additional makeshift tables had to be constructed.

"The whole court in the gym was being utilized. The kids got an hour break for dinner and supper, and then came back to compete in the tournament.

"These kids are totally fired up about table tennis right now, and it's a good sport for here because of the small team sizes and low start-up costs."

Local coaches Tyler Martin and Rod Forsey have clubs going almost every night, and are holding practice sessions two or three times a week in Baker.

Seeley says the two coaches and the national organization deserve credit for the sport's rapid growth in Baker.

"We can't say enough good things about the help we've received from Table Tennis Canada. It's been very supportive of table tennis in Nunavut."