A season that almost never began ended with historic achievements for the Whitehorse Rapids Speed Skating Club.

In June, the club was left to wonder how they would recover the loss of over 140 safety mats that were destroyed in the Canada Games Centre fire.

For a brief period, it appeared as though most of the season would be lost as the damages totaled more than $100,000.

The situation was remedied by an outpouring of local support and the club was able to replace the mats and begin their season, albeit a bit later than expected.

"We were really overwhelmed with how quickly the support came in from donors and sponsors to replace the mats,” said head coach Phil Hoffman. "We reached our objective much more easily than we ever thought we'd be able to.”

The late start to the season caused the club to miss meets in the fall but the team worked tirelessly to prepare for the Arctic Winter Games (AWG) and the several

Outside meets.

With the core of the team training in Whitehorse, another member of the club took her skills to Calgary to train at the Olympic Oval alongside provincial, national and international groups.

Seventeen-year-old Heather Clarke was accepted into both the high-performance Oval Program and the National Sport School to finish grade 11.

In August, she packed her bags and moved over 2,000-kilometers away from home to focus on her training.

"Calgary's been awesome,” Clarke told the Star. "We have ice time six days a week and sometimes twice a day so it's good to get on the ice a lot and have other people to skate with.”

Her efforts paid off at the Canadian Short Track Championships in late March.

The Whitehorse club sent three skaters to the national meet, a club record and Clarke returned with a bronze medal.

It was the best performance by a Yukon female skater in territorial history.

Clarke won bronze in the 1500-metre event, a field that boasted 20 of the top skaters from across nine provinces. She continued the weekend with a 5th place finish in the 1000-m, 7th in 500-m and 5th in the 3000-m points race, with an overall finish in 5th position.

"It went way better than I expected,” said Clarke. "I went in hoping for a top-seven finish.”

Clarke credited her performance to her ability to stay loose and relaxed on the ice.

"I wasn't worried about placing, I wasn't stressed, it worked out really well for me,” she said.

"The top skaters were there and the top skaters from Quebec. They're always a powerhouse in speed-skating so it was cool to compete with the skaters I've always considered to be so much faster than me.”

Clarke was joined at the meet by local skaters Donald Fortune and Shea Hoffman.

In the same weekend, another club member, Hanna Wirth became the first Yukoner to compete at the Canada West Short Track Championships, which were held in Winnipeg, MB.

The 14-year-old competed against 15 skaters from four provinces, placing seventh in the 400-m sprint race and ninth by a few hundredths of a second in the 1,500-m race.

"The season has gone surprisingly well,” said Hoffman, who took over the coaching duties in the 2007-08 season.

Hoffman referred to the AWG as one of the highlights of the year.

The Games saw solid performances from the club as they collected 13 medals:

three gold, nine silver and one bronze.

Clarke also lead the Yukon contingent into the opening ceremonies as the flag bearer.

"The AWG was a really fun competition,” she said. "There were a lot of close races.”

Clarke won gold in the 500-m and 777-m race and thee silver medals in the 1,500-m, 3000-m relay and 1,000-m races.

"I made a lot of improvements and overall it's just been a really good season,” she said.

Clarke is currently in Whitehorse but will head back to Calgary and resume training in mid-May.

Next season she's hoping to make progress towards her goal of competing at the junior worlds. She has two years of eligibility remaining and is hopeful she will get an opportunity to compete two years from now.

"I just want to keep improving my technique and get stronger overall,” she said.

"It's been a really great season.”