Krish Sharma, Donovan Arey and Dwayne Raddi landed spots on this year's under-15 NWT basketball team.
Photo courtesy of Basketball NWT
Krish Sharma, 15, said he was shocked when he found out that he made the team.
"I knew I had to work harder now, because we're going to the big tournament in August," said Sharma.
The East Three Secondary School Grade 10 student said he was invited to try out for the team in February 2018.
"I've been pretty excited since," he said. "I didn't really think I'd make the team, but I did, so it's pretty cool."
Sharma, who will play center for the team, has been playing basketball for two years and hopes to play basketball in Arctic Winter Games in the future.
He said he's most excited to have the opportunity to play against the top players in Canada in his age bracket and hopefully win a game or two.
The team will face off against other territorial and provincial teams in Kamloops, B.C. in August 2018.
Matt Craig is this year's head coach, and he'll be looking to his veterans for leadership.
"Those guys who have experience will know what it's like," Craig said. "This is a much higher level than these boys have ever seen and they know the expectations. We aren't going in with the mindset of causing a huge upset because it's such a different level of basketball than we play here."
The boys will be in a three-team pool as they take on Nova Scotia and B.C. in the round-robin. Their crossover games could see them play any one of the big four: Ontario, Quebec, Saskatchewan or Alberta.
Craig said if there's success to be had, it will come after the crossover games and in the seeding pool.
"It's going to be tough, I won't lie," he said. "I don't foresee us getting out of our pool and into the playoffs. We're looking at the games after the crossover against teams like P.E.I. and Newfoundland and Labrador because those will be our competitive games. We need to be realistic about our chances because we can't compete with provinces like B.C. simply because of population."
When it comes to preparation, Craig is giving the boys the responsibility of keeping themselves in shape courtesy of workout plans that they need to follow.
"The players are taking it upon themselves to do the extra work," he said. "In past years, it was all about basketball but now they have the workouts and if we can get them fit, we'll be able to close the gap on the physical side and we could have a chance that way."