INUVIK
The Inuvik Speed Skating Club is on edge for the start of next season.
Brandon Adams of the Inuvik Speed Skating Club competes at the territorial championships in March. A dozen athletes were on the ice this year. - James McCarthy/NNSL photo
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As the current season winds down, president Theresa Ross said she's very satisfied with the progress of the club, which has seen some major successes this year. She's also looking forward to next year, with the Arctic Winter Games looming.
"We're just a small club right now," Ross said. "But we've had a fair bit of success over the years. There's a ton of history."
The club has been in flux this season with the retirement of a longtime coach, she explained.
"At the beginning of the year we weren't really sure about what we were doing with our coaching," Ross said. "We weren't sure whether we were going to grow the club or not, so we just kind of maintained the kids we had and worked with them this year.
"Hopefully next year we'll be back in business to do more."
Normally, the club fields as many as 25 skaters, but this season the uncertainty surrounding the coaching saw that membership base shrink to a dozen this year. Eight of those skaters were seniors, while the remaining four were juniors.
"We typically have more younger members," she said. "We've got a few kids who are up and coming."
This year, the club's fastest skater has been Alex Robertson, who's been a dominant force on the track, Ross said.
"There's something about speedskating. It's a very fun environment," she said. "It's very supportive. The (NWT Amateur Speed Skating Association) really supports and fosters development in the communities. They help with everything. It's competitive but more. There's more families involved and it's different than some of the other sports. The kids interact a lot more. It's a wonderful environment."
Ross acknowledged that despite the success and long history of the club, speedskating is still not uppermost in parents' minds when it comes to choosing sports for their children. Hockey, of course, takes precedence over almost anything else in Inuvik. She added the club hasn't really made an effort to increase its profile either.
"We find a lot of kids who don't want to go to hockey find that speedskating is the sport for them," she said. "This is a great way just to race, learn new techniques and have fun."
She also pointed to Michael Gilday of Yellowknife, who is a prominent Canadian speedskater and Olympic hopeful right now, for raising the profile of the sport in the NWT.
The club attended two meets this year, including the territorial championships, where the entire team competed.
"We had kids in all of the age divisions, and we took five division titles, which was everything we entered. We took all of those titles. I think we dominated, and it was really good for the kids."
While the clock might be the most important determinant in the overall success of a skater, Ross said there's no substitute for outright competition, especially in short-track skating. That's what the club teaches, due to a lack of long-track facilities in Inuvik.
Ross said the skaters benefited greatly from a chance to go head-to-head with other skaters they don't see on a regular basis.
As is the case with minor hockey locally, Inuvik athletes tend to compete against each other over and over, making it difficult to judge how they stack up against other skaters.
"When they go to competition, they have to figure everything out very fast, whereas Yellowknife skaters are used to having five skaters on the track at a time. So for us it's a good opportunity to go down, see how we do and learn from it."
After those results, the club is in good position to have at least some of its skaters compete in the Arctic Winter Games.
Ross said the qualities that make for a good speedskater amounts to self-discipline. You have to be to motivate yourself, she said, and have that "deep-down determination to be the best you can be.
"That's the bottom line. It takes a lot of determination to work on your own to make it happen."
