Skip to content

Rankin White claims U13 hockey crown

Structured practices paying dividends in helping young players improve their overall game, coach says
250129-kiv-powerfulpeeweesphoto
The U13 Powerful Peewee champion Rankin Rock White squad are Tooma Netser, goalie in front, and, middle row, from left, Ashton Tanuyak, Draden Voisey, Cael Karetak, Logan Manitok and Dominic Hunter. Back row, from left, coach Norman Okalik, Solomon Sanertanut, Noel Kaludjak, Carter Nukapiak, Matoo Tartak, Cody Okpatauyak, Josie Taipana, Sebastien Siksik, Marvin Kritaqliluk, Jarred Ugjuk and coach Simon Kritaqliluk.

The Rankin Rock White squad defeated Coral Harbour in the gold medal game to capture the 2025 Powerful Peewee (U13) hockey championship in Rankin Inlet earlier this month.

Rankin head coach Norman Okalik said the local peewee program features a big group this year.

The decision was made to split the peewee group into four different teams for the tourney.

Our White and Black teams were, kind of, our 'A' Division entries and the Red and Blue teams were like the B Division group,” said Okalik. “Originally, Simon (Kritaqliluk) and Alfred Voisey were going to coach White, but Alfred had family matters to take care of, so I stepped up to help Simon coach Rankin White.

Simon and Alfred have been with Team White most of the year. But, again, we all help each other out because it's such a big group of U13 kids this year.

I think we have somewhere between 20 to 25 kids for each practice with them split up.

That's a lot of kids and why Rankin ended up having four U13 teams in this tournament.”

Okalik said the level of play in the tournament for this age group was quite good, and it was nice to see some competition with the teams that came in from the other communities.

I know Coral Harbour was pretty competitive and the mixture of players from Naujaat and Chesterfield Inlet also produced a good team.

Arviat also had a few players who could keep up. Their arena, I believe, opened later than ours this year, so that could have come into play a bit too.

It's better for most of the teams when there's a number of teams that are competitive. I think these kids are also getting to the age where they're interested in playing other communities for the competitiveness of it.

They had a little more jump in their step knowing teams were coming in from the other communities. It was unfortunate that Baker Lake couldn't make it in due to weather. That's a reason why the U11 kids were able to play in this tournament. They did great. They were a really good and exciting team to watch.”

Okalik said the kids really look forward to playing actual games, but they also enjoy good practices that allow them to further develop their skills.

Usually, at the beginning of practice, he said they're asking to play a game, but they settle into the drills pretty well when they start.

With the great program that had started with David (Clark) and all the hockey camps he set up, it gave us some comfort as coaches to use the drills that he had put in place to keep pushing the kids to learn the skills.

It also provides the opportunity to push the kids to work on areas of their games that they might be weak on and improve their play in those areas, so that it improves their overall game.

That's what I focus on; finding something that we can focus on that may be helpful to them through certain drills on skating and puck handling.

Alfred and Simon have also been great with teaching them positional play. That's been great for them to see and, again, helps them improve their overall play.”



About the Author: Darrell Greer, Local Journalism Initiative

Read more