The Under-20 ball tournament in Arviat has undergone a couple of date changes and will now be played in September.
Tournament organizer Gleason Uppahuak said a combination of umpire availability and him not wanting to interfere with the co-ed tournament — The Calm Air Cup — being played in Rankin Inlet on the weekend of Aug. 22-24, led to the change in dates for the Arviat showdown.
Uppahuak said the boy's U-20 tourney will now be held in Arviat during the Sept. 5-7 weekend.
He said he doesn't anticipate the two date changes will negatively affect the Arviat tourney in any way.
"I'm still hoping we'll have a minimum of eight teams compete in the U-20 tournament, and that will include two, possibly three, teams from Arviat," said Uppahuak.
"We're already in talks with Rankin Inlet, Coral Harbour, Baker Lake and Whale Cove, and it all looks good for those teams to compete, especially now with the little extra time to fundraise. I haven't had a really good response from Naujaat yet, but we're certainly hoping they'll be able to make it to the event.
"I haven't had the chance to really talk to Chesterfield Inlet yet, so I can't really say if there's much interest from them to attend or not. But, of course, we'd like to see them attend and we're hoping for a positive response when I get the chance to invite them."
Uppahuak said the young players are always highly motivated to compete and, when all is said and done, most of the Kivalliq will be represented at the event.
He said U-20 ball is always highly competitive and the skill level is quite high, so he expects the event will still be warmly welcomed by his community despite the date changes.
"The date we ultimately had to go with is during our prime hunting months, but I think we'll still have good crowds for most of the games.
"As always, the crowds will get a little bigger as the weekend goes along, but I have no doubt that we'll have a great turnout for our championship game.
"I'm still feeling really good about the tournament. I'm sure everything will work out fine and the people of Arviat will be treated to some awesome ball being played in our community on the Sept. 5-7 weekend."
