Table Tennis Yukon's tenacity has finally paid off.

For the first time since 2008, the Yukon will field a full table tennis team at the Arctic Winter Games (AWG).

The group held its AWG team trials at Whitehorse Elementary School over the weekend.

Following a round-robin format, seven boys vied for four spots – two in junior male and two in juvenile male – and four girls played for top ranking in the four available spots – two in junior female and two in juvenile male.

Alex Zheng was the only junior player (U17) to come out to the trial, while the rest were of juvenile age (U15).

Abed Rajab was originally named alternate for the juvenile male, but was pushed up to fill the junior male roster with Zheng.

"We'll have to work extensively with him to ready him for that, because it's quite the step up,” head coach Kevin Murphy said.

For the juvenile male, Ehsan Idrees won top ranking while Kyle Gonder took second spot, with Greg Murdoch as the alternate.

Filling the girls' roster, however, seemed like it would pose bigger problems.

Luckily for table tennis in the Yukon, enough female players came out to complete the team.

Alysha Gullison and Whitney Musil will represent the Yukon on the junior female team, while Sana Syed and Grace-Anne Janssen will make up the juvenile female squad.

Table Tennis Yukon (TTY) has tried consistently over the past year to draw female players to the sport, mainly through female-only tournaments and training sessions.

As well, TTY president Dave Stockdale last year instituted a Saturday program designed to get more girls out.

And it helped.

Murphy pointed out that numbers have risen.

"The program that Dave ran on Saturdays last year, that was exclusively looking at bringing girls into the game, paid off,” Murphy said.

"Two of the girls came back and are on the Arctic Winter Games squad. And we're running that same program again on Saturdays and we have about nine kids involved there.

Four of those nine players are girls, Murphy added.

"We're looking to continue this grass-roots approach.”

Murphy noted that Syed's brothers Zain and Mustafa Syed had earned spots on previous Arctic Winter Games table tennis squads and last year's Canada Winter Games team. (Zain and Mustafa are trying out for the badminton team for the 2012 Arctic Games.)

The Yukon hadn't fielded a full team since the 2008 Arctic Winter Games in Yellowknife, N.W.T.

At the 2010 Arctic Winter Games in Grande Prairie, Alta., the group missed its chance, Murphy said.

"It's good to have a full squad again. Two years ago, we were disappointed that we didn't have girls, and then we went to the Games and found out that we weren't alone, that the other contingents also had troubles fielding a full squad of girls as well.

"We thought that we had a couple that were in the club at that time that, if we brought them down there, would have been playing for medals; and we just didn't think that they were ready for that, so we didn't bring them.

"So this year, being in Whitehorse, we're going to have a full squad, and hopefully do well.”

The 2012 Arctic Winter Games are scheduled to take place in Whitehorse from March 4-10.

Team Yukon's table tennis team will train at Whitehorse Elementary School each Sunday until then.

The coaching staff is also looking to send players to the 2011 JOOLA North American Teams Championships in Baltimore, Md., from Nov. 25-27.

Last year, Zheng went down with one of the Yukon club's top players, Ryan Bachli.

"It's a great experience in the sense that there's lots of play at your level,” Murphy explained. "It's great competition. It's not like you play one or two games in a round robin and get knocked out and watch what else goes on; you play and you keep on playing.

"It requires commitment and a little bit of fund-raising.”

The group is also looking into attending tournaments in either Edmonton, Calgary or Vancouver, depending on which place has an open tournament suitable to the needs of the Yukon team.