INUVIK
If you think you can't skate well enough to play hockey, Gene Jenks wants to hear from you.

Gene Jenks, a teacher at East Three Secondary School, is organizing a skating and hockey league for people who can't skate that will run once a week. - Shawn Giilck/NNSL photo

Jenks has organized a new weekly league called the "Adult Learn to Play Hockey" at the Midnight Sun Recreation Complex.

Jenks said the league is focused on the surprisingly-large segment of the population who don't have the skating skills to play comfortably in a recreation league but still want to enjoy both hockey and skating.

He refers to the concept as "hockey for people who can't skate."

Jenks said the concept grew out of his desire to be able to play hockey with his children satisfactorily. At the moment, he said his kids can "skate rings around me."

"The league's been a couple of years in the making," he said during an interview Oct. 4. "I've dreamed of playing hockey, and I even tried a rec league once, but I really just wasn't good enough. I decided it's now or never for me, and some of it is just for selfish reasons for me. I want to get better.

"I said to my friends 'Wouldn't it be great to have a league for people who can't skate?' I was talking to my son's coach, Matt Dares, who said, 'Why don't we book some time and try this?'"

While skating is one of those things that many people think Canadians can do right out of the womb, the truth is rather different. Jenks said he's been pleasantly surprised by the number of people he's encountered in Inuvik who don't have the raw skills to join in on the national pastime.

"I've had so many people said sign me up, or that 'I'll be there,'" Jenks said. "I don't want to go, especially in my full gear, for a family skate, and neither do a lot of people. I can skate, but I can't stop. It's not an easy skill.

"I've advertised it as a hockey league, but the reality is you can come wearing a helmet and with a stick, you can come in full equipment, or you can come just wearing a helmet if you want to work on your skating skills. That's the minimum. It doesn't have to be hockey, we just want you to come out."

Dares will be helping out at least some of the time with coaching, Jenks said.

"He'll come and give us drills on how to stop, maybe how to stick-handle. Really, it's for whatever you want to get out of it. The purpose is for people who are intimidated by the rec leagues or who just lack the skills to come and get them. First and foremost, it's to have ice time with no pressure."

That's at a premium at the Midnight Sun Recreation Complex. It's been two years now since any adult skating time was available, as there are just too many demands otherwise by various groups, said recreation co-ordinator Stevenson Krug. He's now looking at possibly adding an hour a week in the new schedule sometime in the new year for adults, but that's not certain to happen.

He said he's a fan of the new league, which will make up for some of that lost time for adult recreation.

Jenks said about 40 minutes of the sessions will be devoted to practice and coaching, while the last 20 minutes will be used for some relaxed and fun "shinny time."

The league began Tuesday night, and Jenks said he already has two colleagues from East Three who have bought full equipment in anticipation of attending the weekly sessions.

He also stressed it's a fully co-ed venture.

"On the poster, I have a picture of a woman falling too," he said with a grin.

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