Leaps of faith

KIRSTEN MURPHY

Two-year-old Faith Higgins locks her tiny fingers into her mother’s hand and leads her to the balance beam set up in the gym of Iqaluit’s Nakasuk School.

No words are spoken as mother lifts daughter onto the wooden beam. Using her mother for balance, the pony-tailed toddler, one of a hundred youths registered with the Iqaluit Gymnastics club, traverses the suspended structure with careful heel-to-toe steps.

The gymnastics club was reborn two years ago — partly due to the persistence of Isabel “Issi” MacDougall. The 17-year-old represented Nunavut at the 2002 Arctic Winter Games. Fiercely dedicated to the sport, MacDougall took it upon herself to track down the equipment, the gym time and five other volunteers needed to restart the club.

“It just all fell together. The idea was I wanted to train and get more people into it,” MacDougall says.

Her plan worked. Today, 100 youths, mostly girls, jump, spring and roll during one of three classes held every Saturday morning. The introductory classes focus on basic tumbling, approaches and landings. MacDougall has also organized a Tuesday night training session for the more advanced youths.

Turn back time 15 years and it was Cindy Higgins, Faith’s mother, who was surrounded by thick blue mats and gymnastics equipment. Higgins belonged to the Iqaluit gymnastics club from 1988 to 1996.

Back then, the athletic youth, along with Christine and Wendy Bens, Aleathea Baril and Susie Pearce, made up Iqaluit’s first female gymnastics team. They represented the Northwest Territories in national competitions.

By 1997, Higgins’ sporting interests shifted and she traded in her body suit for hockey skates. At about the same time, the gymnastics club disbanded because there weren’t enough coaches.

“I’ve always loved gymnastics. It was the best time of my life,” says Cindy, whose childhood nickname was Road Runner. “We used to say, ‘My kid is going to be in gymnastics and they’re going to be the best.’ Now I have a daughter and I want Faith to be a part of what I was a part of.”

Government groups have come out in support the club. Sport Nunavut and the City of Iqaluit have chipped in the money needed to purchase shirts, upgrade equipment and train coaches.

An $8,000 removable spring floor, donated by the Royal Canadian Legion, was installed at Nakasuk for the Arctic Winter Games last year.

Community support makes the club stronger, wrote parent and coach Carolyn Mallory in a recent letter to the editor published in Nunatsiaq News.

Going for gold

To witness the gymnastics classes is to see teamwork in action.

An hour before the children arrive, five volunteers drag out the mats and equipment.

All classes start with stretching exercises. From there, the youths are divided into groups and assigned to various pieces of equipment: the uneven bars, beam, rings or vault. Coaches carefully supervise all activities and the kids are encouraged to participate at their own pace.

Those too small to reach the uneven bars are given a hand by the coaches.

Some little athletes, though, are already going for gold.

“I did not get it right the first time,” says a little girl whose forearms are covered in chalk. Before undertaking a new exercise on the lower bar of the uneven bars, she insists on perfecting the first maneuver.

Such determination gives MacDougall hope.

“There is a group of older girls, from about eight to 14 years old. They have a lot of potential and they’re really focused. The problem is there just aren’t the facilities. To get to a higher level, like the Arctic Winter Games, you have to be training more than an hour a week. Maybe something will change,” MacDougall says.

Ron Kennedy is already thinking about what has to change.

Kennedy, a gym teacher for 20 years, has identified a group of girls who have the ability to spring forward to new gymnastic heights. None of the participants are ready for competition. However, that may change following a Level 2 coaching class this month.

Training higher level coaches is one in a series of steps needed to groom high-calibre athletes. Another important step is finding long-term residents, those less likely to move away, to get involved with coaching.

“It would be nice if parents were as involved with gymnastics as they are with hockey,” Kennedy says.