Belts, not blows, were dealt out during an annual judo camp in Hay River, and the attendance during the three-day event demonstrated just how much the martial art is exploding in the territory and beyond.

Thirty-nine judoka from as far as Iqaluit and Colville Lake joined martial artists from Fort Smith, Yellowknife, and Hay River to practise, compete and raise their personal ranks. This is the third annual camp run by Mario Desforges, president of the NWT Judo Association.  

The annual training camp took place Feb. 3 to 5 at Ecole Boreale and featured special guest, Akinori Hongo.

Hongo has won two world cup medals for Japan and placed second in the All Japan Championship for his weight category in 2011. He is currently training in Montreal.

NWT communities adopting judo are sprouting up slowly but steadily thanks to Desforges’ grassroots program aimed at targeting school-aged youth.

Desforges lives in Yellowknife but  travels to Hay River at least once every two weeks in order to train a growing number of students in the town.

He recently travelled to Colville Lake, a community that now has 20 students, some of whom he teaches via Skype.

“It’s a great individual sport, and it’s a sport that’s structured around school,” said Desforges. “If you can walk, you can do judo.”

The NWT Judo Association has approximately 1,000 active members who practise the sport across the territory. Desforges said it’s his job to grow these numbers, and his efforts are being supported by the Aboriginal Sports Circle of the Western Arctic, which aims to increase physical activities in the communities.

Over the next three years, Deforges plans to visit 18 communities with practices and camps. The goal is to have 22 communities active in judo over the next four years.

On Saturday afternoon, the 39 camp participants were put through boot camp-type drills, and Desforges was the unforgiving sergeant. He instructed each student to complete their circuit, jumping, crawling and resistance training.

“You do the best you can,” yelled Desforges.

There were struggles and strains and a whole lot of groaning but the students were able to complete the vigorous training.

After almost 20 hours of practice, students returned home to their communities until the camp returns next year – potentially bigger – and maybe with eve more of a competitive edge.

“This camp gets kids ready for the national level,” said Desforges.

The NWT Judo Association has been established for more than 45 years, and the NWT ranks fifth for the sport in Canada, boasting most judoka per capita in practice.

The association received a grant from the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs to run the camp.

A Hay River athlete made history over

the weekend when he became the first speed

skater from the community to earn a spot on

Team NWT for the Arctic Winter Games.

Kaed Blake, 13, battled

through nerves and 33 of the

top skaters in the territory

to place third in the juvenile

boys division during the Arctic

Winter Games Speed Skating

trials in Yellowknife.

The five-year veteran of the

sport will travel to Whitehorse

with his teammates from Fort

Simpson and Yellowknife for

the games, set to begin March

3.

“Kaed is a very dedicated skater,” said

Hay River Speed Skating Club president

Jackie Karp. “He has progressed a lot in the

past year and the whole club is really happy

for him.”

Blake admits he was nervous, adding the

aspects of the sport he loves are the same

ones that freak him out.

“The part where you’re going fast and

you’re almost not in control anymore – it’s

just one foot after the other – that’s what I

like,” said Blake. “It’s almost like a scary

movie.”

This will be the first Arctic

Winter Games for the

Diamond Jenness Secondary

student who said he was

never interested in playing

hockey.

“It’ll be a good opportunity

for me,” he said, “and it’s

different. So I stuck with it.”

Blake returned home

from the trials on Jan. 29 and

will spend the next month

training.

To prepare for the games, the coach in

Yellowknife told him to bring his cardiovascular

training up to 90 minutes each day,

but that’s all part of the plan.

Colourful costumes, flashy, light-up skate-guards, hair, make-up and tights were the garb at the annual fun-skate tournament this year that parents, organizers and volunteers worked hard to ensure was smoothly run. 

This year’s event brought in judges from Edmonton, Fort Simpson and Yellowknife to mark skaters development over all levels in the past year. 

Skaters travelled in for the competition from Inuvik, Fort Smith and Yellowknife.

But for some local skaters it was an exercise in competing against others and challenging themselves. That’s according to four of the tournament’s medal winners who were taking a giddy breather after a full two days of scraping the rink.

For 11-year-old Meg Kruger skating in front of a crowd is dependent on surpassing her own fear.

“I try not to be nervous, so I just look past everyone and think (to myself) that I’m doing this just for fun,” said Kruger.

The territorial’s preceded the test skate day on Jan. 22, when skaters who reach a certain level are evaluated on their skill.

“Once they hit a certain level they can’t be evaluated by their coaches anymore,” said Hay River Skating Club President Claire-Anne Bouchard.

Although 11-year-old Fiona Huang is taking part in relaxed banter with her friends, she’s also aware that the challenge isn’t over.

“I take five deep breathes before I go on the ice,” said Huang. “I’m a very nervous person and I can shake a lot. I try to think it’s just for fun but I’m very competitive.  I just hope I do well in the tests tomorrow.”

Alicia Hayne and Georgia Dawson talk about the hours of practicing they have to put into any given week.

Both 12-year-olds joke about competing with each other but also with skaters from other clubs.

They concurred that skating and conditioning takes up a lot of their lives.

“If you practice a lot, by the time you are out there on the ice by yourself, you have nothing to lose,” said Dawson.

All judges, parents and helpers volunteered their time over the weekend—of which some spent more than 12 hours days at the recreation centre on Friday and Saturday only to return on Sunday for test day.

The HRFSC won’t be hanging up their blades yet.

They’ll be heading to conditioning tournaments throughout the duration of the season—their next destination planned is Whitecourt, Alta, in February.

Conditioning is important say the organizers, especially since there is a lack of available certified coaches to call on.

“If you look on Skate Canada, every little town in western Canada is looking for certified coaches,” said Angelia King, tech representative of the event.

Last year’s territorial event was hosted in Fort Smith, and given all the hard work that went into the local event, organizers are happy to bid farewell the hosting role for another four years.

Next year’s event will be hosted in Yellowknife with a tentative date of Feb. 8-9.

The Hay River Huskies bantam boys team travelled to Grande Prairie this past weekend to participate in a B-level five team tournament. 

The Huskies met up with teams from Valleyview, Spirit River and  Chetwynd in addition to the Grande Prairie squad for a weekend of hot action in a chilly arena. 

In their first game, the Hay River boys tied up Grande Prairie with four goals each.

They lost their second game against Valleyview with a score of 8 – 7 and then moved on to beat Chetwynd 2-1.

In their final game, Hay River faced off against Chetwynd for third place, beating out the British Columbia team with a final score of 4-2.

But the bantam team wasn’t the only one who travelled for a tournament.

The Peewee team spent the weekend in Spirit River, taking the top spot in the playoffs.

The Huskies won their first game 12-2 against Grande Prairie before losing their second round-robin game to Spirit River 4-2.

In the semi-finals, the team beat out Falher 7-6 for the chance to meet the hosting team in the final game. The Huskies came out on top with a final score of 8-6.

“They played great as a team,” said Mike Wilgosh. “They really gelled together.”

The Novice Huskies showed the “essence of Canadian hockey” during their weekend tournament in Beaverlodge said coach Kim Ivanko.

The tournament was a first for the young Huskies, who played in three hard fought games.

“The players rose to the challenge and defeated Fort St. John 8-7 in the first nail-biter game,” said Ivanko.

“Aggressive forechecking, amazing stick handling and strong goal tending as well as solid defence were key ingredients throughout the weekend.”

The Huskies then moved on to play Grande Prairie, losing 7 – 8 in the last 30 seconds in the game.

“The puck just wouldn’t find the opposing net for the Huskies,” she said.

When it came time to face the hosting Beaverlodge team on Sunday morning, the Huskies lost a hard fought game with a final score of 4-7.

Ivanko said that although the novice players faced a tough set of teams this weekend, they were extremely positive.

“The players always maintained a positive attitude and demonstrated great sportsmanship and team spirit,” she said.

Hay River’s female Huskies also travelled this past weekend, and participated in a tournament in Manning but results were unavailable as of The Hub’s press time.

It could have been colder inside the rink at the Hay River Club this weekend than it was outside, but that’s only because the weather was uncharacteristically warm.

Inside, the Hay River firefighters accompanied by members of fire departments across the North to heat up the rink for the annual Firefighters Curling Championships from Jan. 6 to 8. 

For one weekend, firefighters across the North were able to engage in some friendly camaraderie with a little less adrenaline attached.  

The territorials brought in teams from Inuvik, Fort Simpson and Fort Smith to join the two from Hay River. On Sunday, HRFD1 consisting of Dustin Smith, Brent Medernach, Kyle Wright and Wyatt Scheller took the championship title and earned the chance to attend the Canadian Firefighters Curling Championships in Truro, Nova Scotia, this year.

HRFD1 sailed straight through the round robin games with no losses and with a final win of 11:7 over Fort Simpson.

HRFD2 was not so lucky, racking in all losses until their final game against Inuvik, just eking by with a winning score of 7:6.

Only by coincidence were these teams bated against each other in finals: HRFD1 and Fort Simpson, with no losses and HRFD 2 and Inuvik with no wins.

Jason Panter of Fort Smith won the Les MacPhee Most Sportsmanly Award for sportsmanship on and off the ice. HRFD1 is now underway with preparations to attend the championships in Truro.

While young territorial biathlete hopefuls partook in Arctic Winter Games trials to earn a spot on Team NWT, Brendan Green represented Canada by making the top 25 at the Biathlon World Cup. 

On Sunday the Canadian biathlon team finished sixth place in the World Cup mixed team relay making history by achieving the best results ever over a 12th place earned in the event last season. 

The mixed relay is considered for being included in 2014 Olympic Winter Games. 

Russia made gold at 1:13:33.4, followed by the Czech Republic with silver clocking-in at 1:14:00.4, and France earned the bronze medal at 1:14:11.9.

Even though the metal, team Canada took a place on the podium as one of the top six teams.

Before the World Cup 25 year-old Green fought for and maintained international standings.

This year, the 2010 Olympian achieved career-best top-15 results, shooting clean in each of his three sprint competitions this season, and becoming the most consistent of the national men’s squad.

He’s now ranked top in the world in shooting—with no misses in five of the eight competitions entered—and leads the Canadian men’s team in World Cup points.

It was only a few days earlier on Dec. 11 that Green completed his best relay ever despite circumstances.

Green made a statement following the 12.5 kilometre pursuit race, detailing his difficult start.

“It’s been a really roller coaster week for me,” said Green in a press release.

“After the last race in Sweden my back flared up quite badly related to a disk herniation that happened in late July. I thought I was going to have to fly home, but our support staff worked extra hard to get me back on my feet and things improved a lot over the last few days.”

Green said it is still a factor that’s affected his speed while at the events in Hochkilzen, Austria although his shooting has been close to perfect.  Green revealed his positivity after ranking 24th in a men’s 10-kilometre sprint competition on Dec. 15.

“I’ve been pretty comfortable on the range in the sprint for whatever reason and it’s awesome,” said Green. “I’m pumped at that and I’ll take as many clean days of shooting as possible. I’m optimistic my ski speed is there and will get better as the season goes on. I just have to match the shooting with the skis. I think I could have done that today if the conditions were better.”

During the first relay event of the season Green demonstrated top form in shooting and skiing, cleaning two sets of targets without using spare rounds.  Although he ranked 21st going into the race his maneuvering helped to boost the team to a respectable 15th placing.

Last season they ranked at 16th.

“Although I picked up some misses late in the race during the standing bouts, I had a much stronger ski and was actually able to enjoy the race as opposed to yesterday which physically was a struggle from the get go,” said Green. “I am satisfied that I was able to maintain my position, and I am hoping I can keep things rolling in the right direction.”

Green will return home to Canada for a short break before heading to World Cup tour events in Czechoslovakia, Italy and Norway in 2012.

In Hay River, biathlon and men’s hockey try-outs were ongoing while figure skating, dog sledding, volleyball and women’s hockey were all taking place in Yellowknife.

Secondary school teams from the town came away with one win and one loss after the 14th annual High School Hockey tournament this past weekend. 

Diamond Jenness Secondary School’s Senior Panthers lost their final game against Sir John Franklin of Yellowknife but the Junior Panthers took SJF for 5-1 in their finals having gone undefeated throughout the tournament. 

Scott Belanger opened the juniors final game with two goals. Up 2-0, they were answered by a SJF’s Philip Park followed up by Levon Schumann raising the score for DJ again. 

Schumann scored again assisted by Jordan Scott and the game winning goal was scored by Donovan Perron assisted by Calvin King.

“Everyone’s number was on the score sheet for that game,” said Panther’s coach J.J. Hirst. “Either a goal or an assist, everyone got in on the action.”

DJSS met their match in the final game against Yellowknife, with SJF taking an 8-2 win. Scoring was opened by SJF’s number 99 Devon Hinchey during the senior game, scoring the first two goals. The first goal from the Panther’s was scored by Luke Daigneault followed by Andre LeBlanc.

“Andre LeBlanc went to end to end, that was a highlight goal for the tournament us,” said Hirst. “It was just a little too late for us though.”

At 4-0, Hirst was heavy with encouragement, giving each player a “good” shift as they skidded into the benches to let another group pile out. But a few bad breaks early on in the game put the Panthers in a hole early from which they wouldn’t recover.

Just as SJF’s Hinchey opened the game he closed it off, scoring the last two goals.

“I was proud of our boys and girls,” said Hirst. “They didn’t give up, and they kept their heads high and kept trying. I was proud of them for that. They realized it just wasn’t their game. You’ve got to give (SJF) credit; they played hard and they deserved to win.”

There was a significant drop in numbers in this year’s hockey tournament. But it wasn’t from lack of enthusiasm shown by the teams that were present.

It’s usually a tournament that hosts teams from as far as Cambridge Bay, Rankin Inlet and Inuvik.

DJSS put in both junior and senior teams as did SJF.

“We’re in competition with Arctic Winter Games trials next weekend,” said Hirst. “For the (further away team) to try to do back to back weekends would have been too much. They want to give kids the chance to the games and we don’t blame them for that.”

By Sunday teams were rounding up players and heading back to their hometowns. It may have been a smaller tournament but players had a great time in Hay River, said Hirst.

And as this is the first appearance in half a decade from PWK High School in Fort Smith, Hirst said he’s hoping this will reignite a healthy competition between the towns.

“We’ve been trying to get PWK back for a few years now,” said Hirst. “We used to have a really good rivalry. If we can get those guys coming back maybe it could be a great South Slave battle.”

As always there was help from countless parents, teachers and businesses for which Hirst was grateful.

“You asked people to do things and they were done,” said Hirst. “That’s something our town can be proud of.”

If you spent a day in the life of 17-year-old David Lafleur you might find yourself in Hawaii, or on the Alaska National Youth Basketball team.

Or you might find yourself sleeping on the floor of your coaches’ living room while he takes you in to teach you all he can about the sport because in you he sees great potential. But if you’re lucky, depending on how you look at it, you could land on a day when you’re placed on the opposing team against NBA Phoenix Suns point guard Steve Nash. 

And, if you asked Lafleur, he’d tell you that all of these experiences were a result of being in the right place at the right time. But if you ask his mom Jennifer Lafleur, it’s the hard work coupled with the right attitude.

“I think it’s his personality that makes things happen,” she said. “He’s always smiling, has a great sense of humour. It’s not that he hasn’t worked hard—part of it is a charmed life and part of it is something in him. Good things happen to him.”

Originally from Hay River, the former Diamond Jenness Secondary School student attends St. Michael’s University School, a private secondary school in Victoria. The NBA star Nash attended the same school before heading on to play in the NCAA before entering the NBA draft in 1996. Normally Nash would be preparing for his upcoming season but this year the NBA is on lockout until December.

Every year at St. Michael’s there’s an alumni game and this year there were murmurs in the hallways. Aside from the routine team handshakes and before game rituals, nothing could have prepared them for this one.

“It was kind of a rumour (Nash) was coming but we didn’t know for sure,” said Lafleur.  “My jaw kind of dropped when he walked onto the court.  The stands went crazy when he came out and the pressure intensified, but I knew we had a game ahead of us. I’ve never been the kind of person who could shy away from the pressure.”

The Grade 12 student has travelled to the Northwest Indigenous Games, the Arctic Winter Games along with the under 17 Nationals hand selected for Team Alaska, but has set his sights on playing ball in a post-secondary environment.  He’s travelled all over Canada and to the United States to play basketball. A few years previous who won the athlete of the year award at DJSS.

“He’s willing to go out and try new things,” said Jennifer Lafleur. “He doesn’t ever hesitate especially if it’s going to get him closer to what he wants to do. I’ve never had to get on David for anything. He’s pretty determined to do what he wants to do so I just support him.”

But it hasn’t all been rosy for Lafleur. There were many tournaments he couldn’t attend because of associated costs. Also, team Alaska’s performance at the under 17 nationals in Winnipeg last year was a huge let-down.

“Everyone felt like crap at some points because we just got destroyed,” he said. “But it motivated me to get better. We did get handled but as soon as I played with St. Michaels I knew I had to step up my game.”

But before all this, Lafleur spent the last two months of his Grade 10 year in Yellowknife. He spent nights camping out on coach Shaun Doherty’s living room floor and days being whipped into shape before attending St. Michaels.

A typical basketball season in most Northern schools is less than two months. At St. Michael’s it’s almost five, plus more than 10 tournaments a year. Doherty saw Lafleur play at a tournament in Yellowknife and took him under his wing.

“He taught me a lot about the game and he moved me into his house right after he got married,” said Lafleur. “I lived on an air mattress for four months. I wouldn’t have done that if I were him. But it was something I really wanted so I jumped at it.”

Next year Lafleur has his sights set on eastern Canadian Universities and P1 level basketball teams.  He’s also become fascinated by human geography and sociology. Wrangling homesickness, his goal is to continue on with basketball at the university level while hitting the books and continuing to top his experience.

“I get to do a lot of things,” said Lafleur. “When I get older I can say I played against Steve Nash in a basketball game. I never thought any of this would come. I thought I’d be in Hay River my whole life, but I met people at the right time. I don’t mean to sound cocky or obnoxious but I worked really hard to get to where I’m at.”

More hockey fans filled the stands on Sunday than for a seat-gripping final game this past Saturday. 

Having won game 16 against the Hay River Shockers, the Hay River Ptarmigan Huskies moved on to game 18 against Fort Providence. 

J.J. Hirst scored first against Fort Providence and Steve Rosendahl scored second tying the teams up.

But late in the third period Fort Providence came back and scored the game winning goal and earning a final score of 3-2.

Fans flooded out of arena doors disappointed.

“It was a good close game,” said Rosendahl, Huskies team member and president of the Hay River Recreational Hockey League.

“In the end we couldn’t get the balance we needed at the time. It just wasn’t our day I guess.”

The Hay River Shockers beat the local Oldtimers team on Friday with a final of 8-1, as did the Huskies over the Hay River Bandits, 8-1.

The Shockers won against High Level 6-2 and advanced to the finals but lost to the Hay River Huskies 4-2 in game 15.

The Huskies won against Fort Smith 6-4 in game 11 on Saturday and against Fort Simpson 6-2 in game 13 on Sunday.

But when they went up against the Fort Providence Bulls in their second and final game, they lost out 3-2.

“They had a good team, some great players,” said Huskies team member and organizer Todd Ashton.

“There was some good competition and some great hockey was played.”

Four Hay River hockey teams along with teams from Fort Providence, Fort Simpson, Fort Smith and High Level came out to the annual tournament hosted by the Hay River Recreational Hockey League.

The tournament kicks off the season for many communities around the North.