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Successful NWT School Championships

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Another year, another successful NWT School Table Tennis Championships.

We loved seeing students compete at the 2023 Championships. Working hard in preparation for the event, showing up and giving their best. Volunteers, coaches, teachers made sure the competition went smooth, and even with lower numbers, we still had great matches to watch.

Results for the 2023 NWT School Championships:

High School Doubles

  1. Gracie Brennan / Zachary Mathison (St. Pats)
  2. David Dragon / Trey (St. Pats)
  3. Nathan Lavers / Seah Komuhangi (Sir John)

Middle School Doubles

  1. Logan Doll / Oliver Reitsma (WMS)
  2. Will Kanigan / Calen Knight (WMS)
  3. Karissa Sadowick / Carter Sadowick (Deh Gah, Fort Providence)

Grade 6 male

  1. Carter Sadowick (Deh Gah, Fort Providence)
  2. Craig Tracy (WMS)
  3. Jack Stiener-Leslie (ESJS)

Grade 6 female

  1. Kathleen Cai (WMS)
  2. Karissa Sadowick, Deh Gah (Fort Providence)
  3. Emereigh Moffatt (WMS)

Grade 7 male

  1. Owen Bowden (ESJS)
  2. Mussie Tesfazghi (ESJS)
  3. Kirtsean Ramos (ESJS)

Grade 7 female

  1. Ana Villegas (ESJS)
  2. Lexi Blandford (ESJS)
  3. Akem Dzeumua (ESJS)

Grade 8 male

  1. Calen Knight (WMS)
  2. Will Kanigan (WMS)
  3. Logan Doll (WMS)

Grade 8 female

  1. Pontiac Mace (WMS)
  2. Cora Almond (WMS)

Grade 9 male

  1. Aiden Langer (St. Pats)
  2. Paul Mendoza (St. Pats)
  3. Jacee Mariano (St. Pats)

Grade 10 male

  1. Kai Shimada (St. Pats)

Grade 10 female

  1. Lily Brennan (St. Pats)

Grade 11 male

  1. Gabriel Brost (St. Pats)

Grade 11 female

  1. Raine Mingo (St. Pats)

Grade 12 male

  1. Nikhilesh Gohil (Sir John)
  2. Zach Mathison (St. Pats)

Grade 12 female

  1. Gracie Brennan (St. Pats)
  2. Tamara Mathison (St. Pats)

Looking forward to 2024 and another edition of our NWT School Championships and the 2024 Arctic Winter Games in Alaska.

2023 Territorial School Championships

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These years dates will be March 31 & April 1, 2023, hosting the event on a Friday (doubles) and Saturday (singles).

Some information for you:

Date: March 31 & April 1, 2023
Time: Friday 5:00-8:00 (Doubles), Saturday 10:00-5:00pm (Singles)
Cost: $10/player or max $200/school
Location: Weledeh School Gymnasium

Banners/Medals: Banners for Grade 6-8, 9-12. Medals for the category winners, 14 categories for singles (Grade 6-12), 2 categories for doubles (Elementary, High School)

Registration deadline: March 29th, 2023

Q&A
Double division is open for boys/boys, girls/girls or mixed. You choose.Sign up fee is for Singles and Doubles together.No limit for signing up students per school.

Rules of table tennis: https://documents.ittf.sport/sites/default/files/public/2022-02/ITTF_HB_2022_clean_v1_0.pdf

Sign up Sheet SINGLES
Sign up Sheet DOUBLES

2017 Aurora Ford NWT Table Tennis School Championships

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It’s the last territorial champion-ship of the calendar year and was one which provided the most unlikely of results.

The NWT Table Tennis Championships were held at Weledeh and St. Pat’s Gymnasiums on Dec. 15 and 16 and Zachary Mathison of Weledeh Catholic School made sure people knew it doesn’t matter how old you are, but rather that you can play the game. And he did just that, winning the Grade 8 boys singles title. Not a big deal until you realize that Mathison is only in Grade 3. Mathison said it was a challenge, but nothing he couldn’t handle. “I wasn’t really nervous,” he said. “The kids were just bigger, that’s all.” They were a bit bigger this time because the eight-year-old won the Grade 6 boys title last year as a Grade 2 student, but thought he could pull it off again this year. “I had some easy matches, some hard matches,” he said.

Just for a challenge, Mathison decided to enter the high school event to play doubles with his older brother, Christopher, who goes to St. Pat’s, and they won that. “The doubles was a bit harder,” said the younger Mathison. “They hit a bit harder but I wasn’t nervous at all.”

Christopher Mathison went on to win the Grade 9-12 boys singles in the high school division to complete the family sweep, which helped St. Pat’s win the overall banner in that category. While Mathison was busy dom-inating Grade 8 students as an eight-year-old, there were other divisions up for grabs.

St. Joe’s ended up winning the overall championship in the junior division thanks in large part to Alex Ramsey, Raine Mingo and Gracie Brennan winning the Grade 6 boys and girls and Grade 7 girls singles titles respectively. Mingo and Ramsey teamed up to capture the Grade 6 doubles title, which helped the school lock up the banner in their first year competing as a team. The overall banners were decided based on an aggregate system where the total number of points earned by a school through its results was divided by the number of athletes a school brought to produce an average score.

Cory Taylor was the school’s coach and said it was a pretty good debut for the Huskies. “Eugene (Roach, phys-ed teacher) and I ran table tennis as part of the after-school program and we used that as our practice,” he said. “We had some kids picking up racquets for the first time and some who obviously knew what they were doing and so they were challenging Eugene and I for matches.”

Singles
Grade 6 boys – Alex Ramsey, St. Joe’s
Grade 6 girls – Raine Mingo, St. Joe’s
Grade 7 boys – Nikkilesh Gohil, William McDonald
Grade 7 girls – Gracie Brennan, St. Joe’s
Grade 8 boys – Zachary Mathison, Weledeh
Grade 8 girls – Katherine Smallwood, William McDonald Doubles

Doubles
Grade 6 – Alex Ramsey and Raine Mingo, St. Joe’s
Grade 7 – Nikkilesh Gohil and Lennox Mutford, William McDonald
Grade 8 – Colton Robertson and Luke Kotaska, William McDonald

Overall banner – St. Joe’s Senior division

Singles

Grade 9-12 boys – Christopher Mathison, St. Pat’s
Grade 9-12 girls – Shannen Bonnetrouge, Fort Providence

Doubles
Christopher and Zachary Mathison

Overall banner – St. Pat’s

2017 Aurora Ford NWT Table Tennis School Championships

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The 2017 Territorial Championships will be hosted from December 15-16th 2017 at St. Patricks in Yellowknife.

Timeline

Friday, December 15
4-8pm School Championships
6-9:30pm Yellowknife Open (+18 years)

Saturday, December 16
10am-6pm School Championships

Categories

Grade 6 Boys, Girls Singles
Grade 7 Boys, Girls Singles
Grade 8 Boys, Girls Singles
Grade 9 Boys, Girls Singles
Grade 10 Boys, Girls Singles
Grade 11 Boys, Girls Singles
Grade 12 Boys, Girls Singles

Grade 6-9 double mixed
Grade 10-12 double mixed

Fee

There is a $15 per category fee to participate in the tournament. That does not include accommodation and food for the weekend. You can participate in 2 categories, 1 single, 1 double.

Accommodation & Food

If you like to stay at the school, please contact us.

Table Tennis Rules

Depending on participants, we will play best out of 3 or best out of 5. We will follow the rules of the International Table Tennis Federation. If you have any questions, please contact info@tabletennisnorth.ca and we will be happy to help you.

ITTF Rules: http://www.ittf.com/ittf_handbook/hb.asp?s_number=2

Deadline for registration is December 1st 2017. For registration, please send and e-mail to info@tabletennisnorth.ca with the following information: First Name, Last Name, Community, Birth Date and mention what categories you want to participate in (max. 2 categories). Also, please let us know if you want to stay at the school.

If you have any more questions, please contact info@tabletennisnorth.ca. Thank you! We are looking forward to seeing you in Yellowknife, December 15th, 2017.

 

Table Tennis December Poster

Success, the 2017 Aurora Ford South Slave Table Tennis Open

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JBT Elementary School was a great host for this Arctic Winter Games test event. The staff and teachers were excited to host Table Tennis North and Aerobic Table Tennis during the week and in preparation for the event, we had a lot of helping hands.

Fort Smith, Fort Resolution, Fort Providence and Hay River participated in the games with a total of 18 Athletes over 2 days.

During the week Table Tennis North and MACA hosted an Officials and Coaching Clinic were a total of 19 participants got their first introduction to Community Table Tennis Coaching and Introduction to Officiating. Norman Tang, Board of Directors of Table Tennis Canada, came to host the Officials Clinic and was the Referee for the tournament.

Here are the results:

Junior singles: 1. Chris Canadian (Fort Providence) 2. Neilson Vandell (Fort Providence) 3. Dylan Hope (Fort Providence)
Senior Open: 1. Gordon (Fort Smith) 2. Magnus (Fort Smith) 3. Chris Canadian (Fort Providence)
Senior Women’s Open: 1. Beth Hudson (Fort Providence) 2. Shannon Bonnetrouge (Fort Providence) 3. Marina (Fort Providence)
Here are some great images from the tournament, check it out:

“I would like to participate in the tournament. Winning or loosing, it does not matter. As long as I have fun” said 9 year old Sheena who just started playing Table Tennis a few month ago. She was also the umpire for the finals of the Junior event.

JBT Elementary will be the host of the 2018 South Slave Arctic Winter Games for Table Tennis and we are excited about it. “It will definitely be one of the best events of the Games” says Executive Director Thor Gohl. And we believe him!

Congratulations to the winners of the Open and Women’s category of the 2017 Aurora Ford Sales South Slave Open as well as all the participants.

South Slave Table Tennis Tour

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Here we are again, another successful Table Tennis session on the South Slave Tour. We had 2 days at DJSS school in Hay River and another 2 days at Deninu School in Fort Resolution. We also did a night of Table Tennis with the Community in Hay River and one night with the community in Fort Resolution (about 12 people showed up). 

Kate Powell, Principal Deninu School Fort Resolution: “Our students from K-12 were fully engaged in all of the Table Tennis lessons. Thor and Steve delivered a dynamic program which developed skills in a fun way, incorporated lots of cardiovascular work and built towards being able to play a game. Often students do not want to engage in skill development, but the music, movement and drills kept everyone engaged 100% of the time. These lessons built a great foundation and introduction to the sport of Table Tennis. Fantastic facilitation!”

Steve Rowe, Aerobic Table Tennis: “My time in The North West Territories has got off to a great start, our visits to Hay River and Fort Resolution could not have gone any better. Smiling faces and everyone having fun taking part in Aerobic Table Tennis. It’s always great to see the kids keeping fit and learning about the great sport of table tennis. Table Tennis North is doing a fantastic job in NWT and i am so pleased to be part of it.”

Thorsten Gohl, Executive Director Table Tennis North: “A huge thank you to Peter Daniels from MACA in having us on the South Slave Youth Tour. We are very fortunate to have Steve and Aerobic Table Tennis back in the Northwest Territories. This is such a great introduction to our Sport, actually any sport really. Music, movement and a lot of smiles, what can go wrong!?”

A fun way to learn Table Tennis

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After playing Table Tennis with over 2,500 kids, you can definitely see a pattern. Not that it is a lot of fun, but also an it’s an amazing learning experience for students, teachers and myself.

It all starts off with the introduction. “Good Morning everyone!” and right there is the first indication on what the next 30min to 1.5 hours will look like. Most of the time you will hear a very loud “GOOOOOOOOOD MORNING” and we are ready to go. If not, it will definitely come after the full introduction. “So, my name is Thorsten, but you guys can call me THOR” and you can see the smiles on the kids faces. Of course some random comments of “Where is your hammer?” or “How is your dad Odin doing?”, but that is good, that enables them connect right away. And they bring their attention!

If you ask the questions “Who can play Table Tennis?”, 95% of the kids of all ages will say “Me!” and they raise their hand. If you ask, “Who can beat me in a match to 11 points?”, guess what? 95% of the kids will still say, “Me!”

Having experienced and played many international competitions, I can tell the kids that I will play them with one eye closed, hoping on one leg, my dominate arm behind my back, playing with my non-dominate hand and singing the German National Anthem, all at the same time. It is always fun to see the kids getting excited about it. Guess what? 95% of the kids still say that they can beat me!

Day 1 | eye-hand coordination

We begin to get the kids used to the table, the balls and the environment that Table Tennis can provide them. There is no need for any rackets at this point, as they need to work with eye-hand coordination first.

Some fun activities include, try to bounce the ball from one side to another, hitting targets or keeping control of throwing and catching the ball. There are hundreds of possibilities to set this up. Keeping the kids engaged, excited and competitive. Learning while playing, playing and learning!

table-tennis-set-up

Day 2 | Racket Skills

First off, how to hold a racket. There is 2 different kind of grips, can you guess them? If you said Shakehand and Penholder, you are right.

We are building a little “parkour” for the kids that will get them moving. Again, the competitive part plays a big role. Going through the ladder, side stepping around the cones, jumping over the hurdles and back into line up.

If that sounds too easy, let’s try that with balancing the ball on your racket. Then bouncing. Still easy? Let’s try forehand, backhand, alternating from one side to another. Still too easy? You might be a professional free style Table Tennis Athlete! So, you can see where this is actually going and how many varieties you can add to this. A great way to learn some eye-hand coordination, this time with the racket.

For the younger ones we use balloons instead of Table Tennis balls, always a lot of fun to see the kids get excited about it and even better, a wonderful photo opportunity!!!

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We can also work on more skills like rolling the ball on the floor, first against the wall by yourself, then adding a partner, …

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Playing games, competing together, is always a great way to get the kids interactive. Relays are the best way, if you include a few teams and make some obstacles!

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Day 3 | Target Practice

We are going back to the set up from Day 1, but this time we add the racket. To begin, one person will throw the ball, like a serve, to the other side and then, we hit it back. Working as a team to practice together. 

Let’s make it easier in self bounce the ball before hitting it back to the other side. When the ball comes to you, try and hit it to yourself, let it bounce one time on your side, and then over. So again, there are ways to make it easier and harder, depending on the experience the kids already have. 

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Day 4 | Play Time

Everyone worked very hard and now it is play time. We have good basic of skills. Yes, we hear, “When can we finally play at the table?”, but most of the time, the kids are not ready. The skills training may seem like a waste of time, but if you include a challenge, combined with a competition, you will be the winner! So, it’s time to play now!

“Around the world” with an obstacle! You have to run through the table. Everyone has a few lives and you loose them if you are unable to play the ball on the the table. BUT, you always loose a life when you actually get hit while running through the table. That definitely adds a fun “kick” to the game.

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Champions Table is well known among many sports and a favourite for most. The winner moves up a table, the other person moves down a table. At the end, we can see who will achieve the top table. To make it a bit harder, we can add obstacles on the tables, where you can only play on one side or maybe over a higher net, and so on.

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If you do this for 19 days long, 4 to 9 classes a day, then yes, it is getting repetitive. On the other hand, you are building the foundation blocks for those kids in fundamental basic skills. Table Tennis will score 8 out of 9, because it includes agility, balance, co-ordination, catching, throwing, hitting, running and jumping (Paul Noel, Saskatchewan Table Tennis Technical Director). The only one that is not included is kicking. So, not only are we teaching the skills of Table Tennis, we are also supporting skills for overall athletic skills, with a fun sport to play. 

It always amazes me on how fast everyone can learn. Seeing them being excited about something new is great, actually being able to control the ball for a few bounces for and back, is absolutly amazing. The most important thing of all is to keep them accoupied with competitions and challenges, create obsticles and you are golden. As an experienced coached, you already have 100 different scenerios in your head, but if you start of, be prepared to adjust your plan.

The best part of  Table Tennis clinics for me is always afterwards. You go shopping, into the restaurant, or just walking on the sidewalk and there is always one kid that says “Hi Thor!” and you just cannot help it, but SMILE … makes my day!

 

Story & Images by Thor

North Slave Youth Tour

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Table Tennis North visited Łutsel K’e and Whati for a Table Tennis Youth Tour in the North Slave Region of the Northwest Territories. Colinda Blondin, North Slave Youth Coordinator for MACA took Table Tennis North and Thor into the communities.

Thor, Executive Director Table Tennis North, has definitely been excited about this and says “Table Tennis is a great sport for smaller communities, so easy to set up, young kids can play it, elders can, beginners and professionals. I love to see the kids smiles, especially the younger ones when they try to balance the balloon or challenge each others in teams doing relays. AND, there are already so many kids with some amazing Table Tennis skills already!!! A huge thank you to MACA and Colinda for having us.”

Lutsel K’e will try and bring some kids to the Territorial Championships hosted January 27-29th 2017 in Fort Providence.

Colinda Blondin, MACA Regional Youth Programs & Volunteer Officer for the North Slave Region, “I enjoy seeing an interest build in the kids. A big curiosity factor with anything and I love how Table Tennis can play a part of that. So great to have another way of reaching the kids.”

We want to say a big “Thank You!” for having us on this tour to the NWT Department of Municipal and Community Affairs and their North Slave Regional Youth Coordinator Colinda Blondin.

Łutsel K’e

Whatì

2016 NWT School Table Tennis Championships

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Weledeh Catholic School and Table Tennis North hosted the 2016 NWT School Table Tennis Championships in Yellowknife on Sat. November 26th. 

The idea was very simple, play as many matches as possible. Therefore, organizers decided to create 2 big Round Robins,  mixed boys and girls, grades 6 and 7, one group, and grades 8 to 12, the other. The winners of each grade were decided by the overall ranking of their group. 

Undefeated, in not just their own grade, but the entire tournament, were Cole Clinton (6, 7) and Brian Liang (8-12) The youngest athlete, Zakary Mathieson (Grade 2) was undefeated, even among the Grade 6 players. That made him the gold medalist! 

Here are the results by Grades.

Grade 6 Boys

Zachary Mathison – Weledeh
Lennox Mutford – William Mac Donald
Adam Clinton – Allain St-Cyr

Grade 6 Girls

Natasha Zoe – Weledeh

Grade 7 Boys

Cole Clinton – Allain St-Cyr
Darius Moosenose – Weledeh

Grade 7 Girls

Amy Bestina – Weledeh
Therese Coyen – Weledeh
Jaylin Hamilton – Weledeh

Grade 8 Girls

India Edwards-Lowen – St. Patrick

Grade 9 Boys

Louis Phillipe Cloutier – Allain St-Cyr

Grade 9 Girls

Aurora Frasor – St. Patrick

Grade 10 Boys 

Brian Liang – Sir John Franklin
Anthony Wood – Allain St-Cyr

Grade 10 Girls

Tamara Jovic – Sir John Franklin

Grade 12 Boys 

Adrian Litao – St. Patrick
Sebastian Toner – St. Patrick
Justin Uson – St. Patrick

Grade 12 Girls

Katrina Deneron – Thomas Simpson

 Ava was named the “Fair Play Award Winner” for her positive attitude and encouragement for her team mates and others, as well as, finding the time to umpire matches. Katrina and Ava also received the “Most Improved Players award, showing up early for practice, enthusiastically giving their best. 

Most improved player award

Katrina Deneron – Thomas Simpson
Natasha Zoe – Weledeh

Fair Play Award

Ava Erasmus – Thomas Simpson

Jeremy Kielstra, President of Table Tennis North, was excited about the tournament. “Table Tennis North has had a successful few weeks running programming for youth here over the last couple of weeks. Things culminated with a tournament on Saturday. I think this was a great event for the sport and will encourage involvement in Table Tennis moving forward. Thank you to Thor for organizing and executing the events over the past weeks in Yellowknife. Thanks also to Ulli Nolting for helping out wherever needed.”

“It has been an amazing event, everything worked out perfectly” says Executive Director, Thor about the workshops and tournament this past weekend. He adds, “The kids got to play a lot of matches, even the parents used the opportunity to play on the tables that were available. The kids actually improved a lot in just that one day. Table Tennis rocks!!!”

We are looking forward to the 2017 Territorial Championships hosted in Fort Providence from January 27th to 29th 2017. See you there!?

Sport North visiting Table Tennis at Sir John High School

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It was a very exciting time for Table Tennis North when Doug Rentmeister, Executive Director of Sport North, came for a visit to Sir John High School. He observed the clinic that coach Thor was hosting with the Sir John Sport Academy.

Table Tennis is the 30th Territorial Sport Organization and newest member under the Sport North Umbrella. Now 16 months old, Table Tennis North has reached 11 communities, plus played and workshoped with over 2,500 children in the Northwest Territories. This month of November has included  5 schools in  Yellowknife. 

“Sport North is the foundation of our success. They welcomed us into their family just over a year ago, giving us the possibility as a Territorial Sport Organization to expand and grow. It is very important to come together and make the North stronger, we work and succeed together with one common goal.”

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