RANKIN INLET - Former Hockey Nunavut president Donald Clark has seen progress made during his twoyear term atop the territorial zone.

Clark stepped down from the position this year to concentrate more on officiating and his role as Team Kivalliq's head coach in the Nunavut Junior 'C' program. He was replaced by Iqaluit's Denis Lambe. Clark will remain on the Hockey Nunavut board for two years as past president.

Clark said registration numbers went up during his two years in office and, with the help of former treasurer Justin Merritt, he leaves the zone in better financial shape than it was when he took over. He said his tenure as zone president was a learning experience that took up a good deal of his spare time the past two years.

"There was a lot more time required of me than I thought going in," said Clark. "In addition to being in better shape financially and having our numbers go up, it looks like we made progress in nailing down a better Arctic Winter Games teamselection process.

"These coming games will be the big test for it, so we'll see what happens."

Clark said the zone president's job is no different than any other in that it's easy when there's no problems, but once controversial issues arise, it can become very demanding.

"Like most things in life, once controversy strikes and people are getting upset and all that, it gets far more challenging," he said. "A fair amount of my time was spent dealing with discipline issues.

"They're unfortunate, but it's necessary to deal with them quickly and fairly.

"You can't delay dealing with them, because the situation will just get worse or other things of a similar nature will keep happening."

Clark said he wishes the new board success. He said there's a learning curve with running the zone, but he and Merritt are willing to lend a helping hand should it be required.

"There's good communication between the Hockey Nunavut Zone and the Hockey North Branch, with Gary Vivian as Branch president," he said. "It often appears, however, the two zones are more active than the Branch and that has to be addressed.

"Hockey North is often viewed as a figure head so we can be part of Hockey Canada, but the Branch is working to improve that perception.

"It would also be nice to have Branch championships and more inter-Branch play between teams from Nunavut and the NWT at all age levels."