INUVIK
The silver medals won by the boys' team at the National Aboriginal Hockey Championship earlier this month are still shining pretty bright and some of that light is reflected on Inuvik.

Team North's boys outfit show off their silver medals after getting to the gold medal game at the National Aboriginal Hockey Championships in Mississauga, Ont., on May 7. They are, front row from left, Seth Ningeongan, Liam Wong, Qartitaq Kusugak-Clark, Austin Caza, River Ross, Ben McClelland and Josh Tetlichi. In the back row, from left, are Matthew Skinner, assistant coach Neco Towtongie, head coach Les Skinner, Drake Giroux, Johnny Elias, Jaden Sigurdson, Kaine Comin, Tyler Sabourin, Jonas Leas, Stephane Nukapiak, Kaidan McDonald, Tyler Akeeagok, Tanner Mandeville, Alex Skinner, team manager Derek Squirrel and assistant coach Tim Gordon. - photo courtesy of Aboriginal Sports Circle of the NWT

With a player, equipment manager and head coach all from the same family, the community was well represented in the historic win. River Ross, who up until last year played in Inuvik, was also on the team.

"It was great," said Les Skinner, Team North's head coach.

"We saw these individuals grow as a team day by day."

He said there were three goals: to get better every day, to reach the semi-finals and to have fun. According to Skinner, the team reached and exceeded all of them.

"Of course we'd have rather won the gold medal," he admitted, saying he had planned to ask all the players how they felt about it a few weeks after the tournament when the dust settled.

"It's hard to watch, knowing you've won the silver, but lost the game."

The team was made up of players from across all the three territories and beat out Ontario in the semi-finals in a dramatic 5-4 win. The boys took on British Columbia in the gold-medal game, but lost 3-0 on May 7. This is the first time a team from Northern Canada has won a medal at the NAHC or any national hockey tournament.

"It was awesome," said Alex Skinner.

"The final game was nerve-wracking, but even going in we knew we had already made history, that we could be proud no matter what."

Alex, who has been to the tournament once before, said the difference this year was how all the players came together as a team. His father said this was the message he and the other coaches stressed throughout the event as well as the days leading up to it.

"Every year, the kids that you get, they're always different," Les said.

"You never know how the new kids are going to mesh with the older group .we stressed that they have to play as a team. Just from the practices and the exhibition game, you could see they were buying into what we were telling them."

He said he saw many of the players experience personal growth throughout the course of the tournament.

"I'm very proud of them," he said.

"They're maturing into young men, not just better hockey players."

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