Coach Chris Crooks has devoted the last six years to helping the youth of Cambridge Bay and beyond learn not only to wrestle, but the skills to cope with anything life might throw at them.
“We found out it wasn’t just a recreational activity,” says Crooks, who picked up the mantle of coach of the Cambridge Bay Wrestling Club (CBWC) along with his wife and son when there was a mass resignation in the community in 2018.
“It has helped with school attendance, reducing suicidal ideation and leadership skills,” among many other benefits for school-aged children in the community, he said. “We try and use wrestling as a medium for mental health, recreation and sport.”
“We’ve been able to get more and more funding... to take our youth all across Canada... we’ve exposed them to quite a bit... it's also a huge piece for people down south understanding the difference of living in fly-in communities,” Crooks adds.
In July, the club took 20 Nunavut wrestlers and eight coaches from five communities to a week-long camp in Rocky Mountain House, Alta.
“The club feels it is important to support wrestlers who age out of competition and help them make the transition to coaching,” explains Crooks, “hence why we took eight coaches.”
It is also Crooks' intention that these coaches will then continue supporting and coaching in their home communities, as opposed to southerners that come and go.
“We’re trying to make it as sustainable as possible,” he says.
With this goal in mind, Crooks has taken the idea of the camps a step further to expand them into other Nunavut communities with a territory-wide tour this fall.
“So the thought... is to recruit local people, Inuit basically, in these communities to continue that program.” he explains, adding that this approach has already taken off, with former students now leading programs in Arviat, Rankin Inlet, Pangnirtung and Iqaluit.
‘We’re funding other communities right now,” explains Crooks. “So what we’re trying to do is take the funding model from Cambridge Bay to other communities.”
He says the funding is a mix from mostly territorial government departments, community fundraisers, as well as some donations from Agnico Eagle and various other sources.
From horseback riding in the Rockies, to hiking and visiting museums, travel goes hand-in-hand with learning experiences.
“Being in these isolated communities, it’s hugely expensive [to travel]... they get exposed to different ways of thinking, different experiences than in their own communities,” Crooks says of the opportunities to venture south.
Valuable life skills, such as teaching finances in relation to grocery shopping, as well as doctor and educator visits for family planning and learning about alcohol and drugs, are additional components to the wrestling training.
“It’s a comfortable conversation,” says Crooks. “It gives them the opportunity to talk about their culture and life without any shame... talk about their community and take pride in it. There’s a lot of leadership teamwork and conflict resolution... we’re also counsellors and mentors...
“We try to develop a sense of teamwork, and a sense of family, so they can reach out when they need to... So we’re beyond just taking the kids out for wrestling,” he says.
“[The camps] are tough. They’re tough physically, they’re tough mentally, as well as being away from home. We’ve found they need a lot of support to keep from breaking down... it’s beyond just going out and training.”
A structured environment
Crooks says that when emotional breakdowns happen, it’s often because of grief related to suicides or other premature deaths back in the athletes' home communities. The realization that a friend or family member is no longer around to hear about their achievements and activities sometimes comes as a shock, as does returning home afterwards.
“Sometimes it comes after good experiences... that’s when it hits them the most," says Crooks. "So that happens, but it’s cathartic... we do a lot of discussion about life and getting them through, and sometimes it’s easier if you’re away from your community.
"We’ve done a lot of discussions for life when they go back. There’s a lot of structure in the camps, and at home it’s not like that at all, but what can you take from camp to implement in your life and self.”
One of Crooks' two organizations, Wrestling Nunavut, recently received a grant from Wrestling Canada to create an instructional Inuit wrestling and freestyle wrestling video and manual. The video used local Inuit wrestlers and the manual will be translated into Inuktitut (North Baffin and South Baffin dialects), Inuinnaqtun and Inuvialuit.
The funding will also enable Crooks and his coaches to visit nine communities in the territory to run clinics. This is critical, as travel between Nunavut communities is so cost-prohibitive that it's often cheaper to fly select participants down south.
Nunavummiut can take part in the following community wrestling clinics on these (approximate) dates:
-Kugluktuk, Sept. 11-15
-Rankin Inlet, Sept. 15-17
-Arviat, Sept. 17-19
-Baker Lake, Oct. 6-9
-Chesterfield Inlet, Oct. 9-12
-Iqaluit, Oct. 18-20
-Iglulik, Oct. 21-24
-Clyde River, Oct. 24-27
-Pangnirtung, Oct. 27-30
