The competitive skipping season may be over for the Takhini Heartbeaters, but their trip to the provincial championships in Nelson, B.C. earlier this month left a lasting impression.

The Yukon skipping crew competed with more than 150 kids from B.C. and ended up bringing home a bunch of medals. The four member rookie team of Erin Borgford, Taylor Forsgren, Amanda Keleher and Tyler Wiens won first place in every team event in their division, and also picked up several individual medals.

A rookie is someone who has not competed at an Outside competition before, and they can stay rookies for two years. Since not many Yukon skippers compete outside of the territory, due to travel and costs, the rookie team is one of the strongest.

'They did very well,' said coach Judy Ratcliffe in an interview today.

The mainstream team of Jessica Borgford, Alyssa Wheler, Aliesha Day-Rentmeister and Shanny Kaiser also did well at the event, competing against 30 other skippers and picking up a bronze medal overall.

'The B.C. team (mainstream) is very strong at nationals,' said Ratcliffe. 'They win lots of medals and often place first. And some of their teams are even planning to go the the world championships in Australia. So our kids were in a very tough division.'

Ratcliffe said people at the championships were impressed overall with how the Yukoners performed because they are so isolated.

The team flew from Whitehorse to Vancouver, then chartered a 21-seater bus to Nelson. Ratcliffe made sure to make the most of the trip, visiting the Vancouver Aquarium, shopping at Metrotown and hitting the Ainsworth Hotsprings in Nelson. That was all before two full days of competition.

'It was an action-packed weekend,' laughed the coach. 'I was exhausted when I came back.'

But Ratcliffe said it was all more than worth it because the team learned a lot, and she picked up a few ideas for next year.

'At least this way we get to see where we need to improve,' she said. 'We know what things we are good at, but we have to be better at other things and it involves getting some gymnastics help. We also need more help with our creativity and adding little dance moves.'

Ratcliffe said local choreographer Dale Cooper has worked with the team before on dance moves and she may ask Cooper to help again, as well as a local gymnast.

'I think what we need to do is have a gymnast on a regular basis. I'm sure we can pay someone to help us.

'It's the same with dance. It's just those little things of presentation that make the difference, how you hold your body and how you point your toes.'

Ratcliffe said the team is very good at the technical tricks, but they have to push the difficulty of the tricks and try not to get complacent.

'The kids do know a lot of difficult tricks, it's just a matter of combining them and making them more interesting to the judges and the audience,' she said.

With the conclusion of provincials, the competitive skipping season is now over for the Whitehorse squad, although Ratcliffe said she will still be busy over the summer.

'I've got lots of ideas for next year and how to get other schools involved in these type of competitions,' she said. 'Maybe some time other schools will be interested in this competition, but it costs so much money and you get tired of the fundraising.'

The trip to Nelson alone cost the Takhini Heartbeaters $10,000.

Ratcliffe and other skipping officials in the territory will also be re-certifying judges next fall. A new criteria for competitions was passed at a recent annual general meeting.

'From now on, every four person team has to provide two judges, so we'll be re-certifying judges this fall,' she said.

The previous rule called for one judge per four person team. Christine Borgford and Melanie Clarke made the trip to provincials with the Heartbeaters.

'We had seven people certified this year, so we'll have to re-certify and hopefully certify more people,' said Ratcliffe.

Except for a few demonstrations and public appearances, the Heartbeaters will take a break from skipping over the summer. A few of the mainstream skippers will be leaving the team as they head off to high school next year.

Ratcliffe is confident next year's team will continue to represent the territory well.