James McCarthy
Northern News Services
Published Monday, September 29, 2008

MITTIMATALIK/POND INLET - Niko Inuarak is the new recreation co-ordinator for Pond Inlet.

When contacted by News/North, he was in the middle of his very first day on the job. Inuarak says he's excited to take on his new role.

"I've always been into sports and I've wanted to do a job like this for a long time," Inuarak said.

Wilma Pike, the acting senior administrative officer for the hamlet, said she felt Inuarak was the man for the job after a lengthy search.

"He seems to be very well-spoken," she said. "He really has a love for recreation."

One of the advantages Inuarak has is he was born and raised in the hamlet, which he said made his transition much smoother.

"I'm a local boy and I know everybody here," he said. "I'm hoping that will make things easier for me."

"We always try to hire locally and he was a perfect fit," Pike said.

Inuarak is only 25 years old and still being relatively young gives him an idea of what youth in the community are looking for.

"As a young person, I was always helping out younger people," he said. "I know the services and things they would need to help them out."

Inuarak's hiring fills the position after the hamlet went the entire summer without someone in the role, Pike said.

"We think we have someone who can really do this job," she said. "I think we lucked out."

Now that Inuarak is on the job, he has some ideas when it comes to getting sports into the hamlet.

"I was thinking of having some High Arctic sports tournaments," he said. "Maybe a basketball tournament with teams from places like Clyde River and Arctic Bay. They used to have one of those but it went away."

A High Arctic hockey tournament is something there should be, too, he said, adding he may get into coaching some of the kids if that happens.

"I was talking to the kids before I got this job about coaching the peewees or bantams maybe," he said. "The kids are looking forward to using some new hockey equipment we have on hockey days."

Inuarak also knows the job won't come without some difficulty.

"There will be hard times and some learning curves but I'm looking forward to it all," he said.