The first wave of Team Yukon will be leaving next week for the 2019 Canada Winter Games in Red Deer, Alta.

“There’s 170 on the whole team,” chef de mission Trevor Twardochleb explained in an interview this week. “There are 108 athletes and the rest will be support staff, coaches, managers, technical support people and mission staff.”

He said there are 16 different teams competing over two weeks, with the first wave leaving next Thursday aboard an Air North charter and returning a week later, the same day the second wave leaves.

Team Yukon will be hosting a pep rally next Wednesday at the MacBride Museum but the rally is for team members only, he explained.

Twardochleb said the rally is designed to be a fun evening for the team to play a few games, get to know each other, hear from the minister of sport, have something to eat and relax before they head out onto the national stage.

The Yukon won seven medals at the 2015 Winter Games in Prince George, B.C., all but one of them on skis.

Biathlete Nadia Moser, now competing on the junior world biathlon circuit, brought home three medals, for instance.

Retired Olympian Knute Johnsgaard won gold for the territory. Rachel Pettitt also won gold in figure skating.

Annah Hanthorn added a silver in cross country skiing and Kendra Murray won a bronze in cross country skiing.

Aside from the men’s and women’s hockey teams, the cross country ski team is the largest with 10 athletes and four coaches and support staff.

Twardochleb declined to make any predictions about how Yukon athletes will stack up against the rest of Canada, other than to suggest you never know.

Team Yukon will consist of:

Phase one

• Artistic (synchronized) swimming: two athletes, one coach;

• Biathlon: six athletes, three support staff;

• Freestyle skiing: six athletes, three support staff;

• Gymnastics: two athletes, two support staff;

• Men’s hockey: 20 athletes, five support staff;

• Speed skating: two athletes, one coach;

• Table tennis: six athletes, two support staff;

Phase two

• Alpine skiing: six athletes, three support staff;

• Archery: four athletes, two support staff;

• Judo: four athletes, three support staff;

• Badminton: eight athletes, two support staff;

• Snowboarding: five athletes and three support staff;

• Cross country skiing: 10 athletes, four support staff;

• Figure skating: four athletes and three support staff;

• Women’s hockey: 20 athletes, five support staff;

• Squash: four athletes, two support staff;