Table Tennis Yukon held their Canada and Arctic Winter Games tryouts at Whitehorse Elementary School on the weekend.

The Star dropped by Saturday and spoke with veteran table tennis coach Kevin Murphy, who oversaw the tryouts.

“I think this is my eighth Canada Winter Games coming up and it might be my 15th Arctic Winter Games, so as a coach for this sport, I guess I’m a little long in the tooth.”

“Today we’ve got the trials for both Canada Winter Games and Arctic Winter Games which are being held in January and February of the coming year, 2023. So we’re looking at – for Canada Winter Games, it’s a team of two boys and two girls under 18 and for Arctic Winter Games it’s a team of four boys and four girls: four under 18 and another four under 15.”

12 kids showed up on Saturday and Murphy expected a few more on Sunday, who according to Murphy had “a really strong chance of making the teams.”

“We’re definitely on the short side of having a number of girls to choose from for the team,” related Murphy.

Murphy said the tryouts were going good so far.

“I’m pleased to see that a lot of the kids out here are ones I’ve been coaching on Saturdays and Sundays and there’s two other players that have come out for the first time this season that are interested in the sport, although one of them is a player I remember seeing maybe six years ago when she was quite young.”

Krish Sharma was at the tryouts but not participating.

“He (Coach Murphy) gave me an exempt(ion) because I guess he knew I could beat all these guys, so he didn’t really have me playing today.”

Sharma, 16, has been playing table tennis since 2017. He has participated in the 2018 Arctic Winter Games and the 2019 Canada Winter Games.

“For Arctics, it was my first year playing, so I just barely made it out of the first round-robin, then lost after that. The Canada Winter Games, I beat a few players but I wasn’t able to beat any of the people from the provinces such as Ontario and Quebec and all those guys.”

For Sharma, those Games were a learning experience.

“It was like, my first few years of playing.”

Sharma is going into table tennis for the Canada Winter Games but not the Arctics. He may be playing volleyball in the Arctics. “I’m not sure yet. I’m still trying out for that.”

Regarding the Canada Winter Games (CWG), Sharma said “I definitely want to do better than last time, because it was kind of embarrassing, like, looking back at all the games, it was embarrassing to see how I played. So I want to play a little better than that and beat people from a few provinces that I know I could this time, such as P.E.I. I want to take those guys on; make sure I beat other territories.”

Sharma was asked if winning a few games last time gives him confidence going into these Games.

“I’m sure that they’re gonna be a lot better than last time, so I’ll still have to try my best but I hope to do a little better than last time.”

Sharma added he’s “just excited” to be playing in the Canada, and possibly the Arctic Winter Games.

Colin Diamond, 14, was trying out for the Canada Winter Games and Arctics.

He said it was going “good. I started losing and I guess I won a few later but, I don’t know, doing all right.”

Misa Svoboda, 16, only began practicing about two and a half weeks ago. He played Sharma in a fun match and was quite happy that he scored nine points on the Yukon tennis table ace.

Victor Li, 14, was trying out for Canada Winter Games and Arctics. He said it was going good so far and that he was winning all his matches. He also appeared to be a lock for the Winter Games teams.

Murphy said he’ll keep the practices going until the Games begin.

Murphy added “I’m looking forward to the games and seeing how these kids do. It’s what keeps me young too.”

After the tryouts, Murphy emailed the Star the chosen ones for both Games teams. The CWG team includes Sharma and Li and the girls are Kalie Bennett and Melodie Qiu.

For the AWG team, the Junior boys are Diamond and Svoboda and the Junior girls are Kalie Bennett and Melodie Qiu.

There are two juvenile boys, Li & Elden Wickham. There are no juvenile girls qualifiers.