Dave Stockdale is growing anxious.

The Table Tennis Yukon president wanted to get an early jump on the 2012 Arctic Winter Games in Whitehorse by holding team trials over the weekend.

Something of an experiment, he said.

"I just wanted to get a head start on things. It's just like doing an experiment. It failed. So you know you don't have to do that one again,” Stockdale said.

The trials, held for boys and girls born in '97 or later and '94 or later (U17 and U14 for the Games), took place at Whitehorse Elementary School on Saturday.

Leading up to the weekend, Stockdale was especially concerned about drawing girls to the sport.

Grace Anne Janssen was the lone female to attend the camp, while Alex Zheng, Kyle Gonder, Matthias Hoenish and Abed Rajab came out for the boys.

"It was quite disappointing actually; I was just trying to get some indication,” Stockdale said, adding that it is a tremendous opportunity because Russia and Greenland usually enter competitive girls teams, and the rest of the field is wide open.

He's hoping this weekend's Yukon Table Tennis Championships will give him a better indication.

The championships will start at 1 p.m. on Saturday with the team event, followed by the junior singles. Games start 10:30 Sunday morning and will be followed by the 2 p.m. open doubles tournament.

The TTY contingent will then head to Fairbanks to compete in the Alaska Challenge from May 6-7.

Stockdale said this schedule handcuffed him to hold last weekend's trials on Easter weekend.

"After Yukon Championships are over and we get back from Fairbanks, I'm going to call a meeting with the parents of kids who might potentially be involved in the (AWGs), and say, ‘This is what's going to have to happen. If we don't follow through on this, then the kids won't be considered for the team,'” he said.

Low numbers now are especially concerning because Stockdale was working on coordinating a training camp in June with former national team coach Marles Martin, the current development manager for Table Tennis Canada who visited in January to work with the boys Canada Winter Games squad.

Stockdale would rather not invite the Ottawa-based Brazilian to Whitehorse if there is little to no interest, he said.

"I've got to make sure these kids are going to attend that camp, that's the least I can expect, so the parents need to know where we're at,” Stockdale said.

"There's some dedicated kids who, if everybody came out, might not make the team.

"But the others, who would make the team, are not coming out consistently to practice, not showing the interest that they should.

"And I don't want them to walk in at the last minute – well, we wouldn't let them walk in at the last minute – but they have to know that well ahead of time.”

Stockdale is now unsure how to attract the attention of not only those table tennis players who have already shown interest, but how to attract new talent to the sport.

He would rather not go into the schools to hold a clinic, he said.

With the 2012 Games on the horizon, he would rather focus on getting players who are looking to compete.

"We're looking for girls who want to play; I just want the girls out there that are interested in going (to the AWGs),” he said.

"If there's no interest, and I've done the clinic thing before, then I don't know what we're going to do about that. You can do as much advertising as you want, word of mouth and that kind of thing, but it still tends to fall apart.

"It's kind of disturbing, and I don't know what the real reason is. I know there are more things happening, it's happened in the past, and the last couple of years it's getting more and more difficult to attract the girls.”

Might the potential players feel no urgency because the AWGs are so far away?

"Maybe. But look at the other sports in town. Kids are swimming five days a week.

"Skiers practise during the summer as well as the winter; they're programs that are pretty intense. (Table tennis) is a minor sport. It goes up and down.”