The new season of tournament squash at the Racquet Club is off and running for 2018-2019.
The Investors Group Season Opener, the traditional kick-off event, wraps up this evening starting at 5 p.m. with the finals in each of the divisions. Play began this past Tuesday and has happened every evening leading up to tonight.
Action will be happening in the open division right on down to the juniors and you can see the next edition of Yellowknifer for the wrap-up.
Big money up for grabs
The High Performance Athlete Grant will once again be handed out this year to the best elite athletes the NWT has to offer but Sport North and the Department of Municipal and Community Services needs to know who to give it to.
The grant is available to any athlete in good standing with their territorial sport organization, be a Canadian citizen or landed immigrant, not working full-time, be in the south on a recognized training program and not being paid by a professional sports organization.
Athletes who are chosen will receive anywhere from $5,000 to $20,000 depending on what level they're at. The deadline to get an application in is this coming Wednesday.
Off to the sunshine
There will be a new squash pro at the Racquet Club beginning on Monday.
Melina Turk, the current pro, has accepted a coaching job at a club in Bermuda and her final day on the job in Yellowknife will be today. Taking her place on a full-time basis will be Jeff Hipfner, who's the assistant squash pro, and his first day as the new head pro will be Monday.
Turk's departure causes a bit of a headache as she was scheduled to be one of the coaches for the Canada Winter Games squash team in Red Deer, Alta., this coming February.
Turk said the situation is still being discussed and nothing final has been decided as of yet.