A trio of Yukon judokas will be hitting the mats against some elite level competition this weekend.

Cassi Jensen, Daniel Tonner and Shayne Melanson will all be travelling with Judo Yukon high performance coach Bianca Ockedahl for competitions in Montreal and Toronto and a training camp with Team Quebec.

“In the Yukon they’re always fighting the same kids,” said Ockedahl, noting they try to get the youth Outside for competitions in Alberta, B.C. and Alaska. “This is a little higher level this time.”

Ockedahl, a former member of the Canadian national judo team and an NCCP III- certified coach, grew up in the well-laid judo system in Quebec.

“Quebec is not just any tournament. There’s a lot of kids out there,” she said. “I was a product of that. I know what they need to do.”

All that’s missing now is for the athletes to learn what they need to do. And two high-level tournaments and a training camp at the national training centre in Montreal should do the trick.

Yukon judokas have travelled outside for training and competitions before, but for the U14 duo of Jensen and Tonner, this will be the farthest they’ve ever travelled for their sport.

Jensen and Tonner have some idea of what to expect.

“We went to a camp in Vernon, (B.C.) and people have been telling me that it will be a lot like that camp so we expect that,” said Jensen. “We expect high-level training because we know they get a lot more practice than we do and they’re a lot more competitive.”

“Yeah,” Tonner jumps in. “They’re probably going to be stronger and a lot more skilled.”

Jensen, 12, first stepped onto the mats when she was five. Her father, Aaron, is a sensei at Riverdale’s Shiroumakai Judo Club.

A blue belt, Jensen said she enjoys beating up the boys.

“I love judo,” she said with a smile. “I’ve met lots of friends doing judo. It’s fun to beat up people, the boys that get on my nerves.”

Tonner, also 12, first began practising a few years ago, following a tip from a work friend of his father’s who was a sensei at a local club.

The duo takes on a leadership role during practices at Shiroumakai, in the gym’s space overlooking Vanier Secondary School’s gymnasium.

They lead exercises, helping younger judokas with their technique and encouraging them to put in effort during practice.

Without any girls of a similar weight and skill, Jensen finds herself squaring off against the boys.

“It’s challenging sometimes,” said Jensen. “He’s (Tonner) a lot faster than me and some of them are quite a bit stronger than me but it’s still fun and in the small tournaments it doesn’t really matter.”

Near the end of October, Judo Yukon hosted its first inter-club tournament of the season out at Golden Horn Elementary School.

There, near the end of the day Jensen and Tonner faced-off.

“Daniel has kind of been the super star in the Yukon for the last three years,” said Ockedahl. “He’s always been a lightweight and always been one of the best in his category and I think he kind of sticks to that.”

In their high performance training with Ockedahl on weekends (she relocated to Carmarks this fall) she asked him to work on diversifying his techniques.

On Oct. 22 he delivered, sending Jensen flying into the mats with a self-sacrificing Tomoe nage, a technique in which the attacker gets a good grip on their opponent and falls on their back, getting their foot to connect on their opponent’s mid-section to get them to allez-oop and fall flat on their back on the mat.

“He’s starting to develop new techniques, like the one he did on Cassi in the tournament,” said Ockedahl, “which was a surprise I think to everybody.”

This year Jensen has taken a serious interest in improving her judo skills.

“Cassi is very determined especially this season. She’s the one harassing me for things: ‘What do I need to do? Where’s my program?’” said Ockedahl. “She’s very ready to improve and do whatever it takes.”

Melanson, who was unavailable for comment for this story, will be the veteran of the group.

He is no stranger to big competitions. At the 2015 nationals, he posted Yukon’s top result, a fifth place in the -73kg U16 category.

But Melanson took a year off fighting and hasn’t really had a proper match since. He is now competing in a heavier weight class and will be in the U18 branch of competition.

“He’s strong and he can do all the big lifting throws and stuff, so for his weight class it will help him,” said Ockedahl.

But being off the competitions mats for so long may mean a stomach full of butterflies out east.

“He gets nervous. It’s the mental game,” said Ockedahl. “He is quite nervous going into this but I think once he’s out there he’ll feel confident.”

She hopes the athletes take away experience from the trip.

“For me, it’s not about win or lose. It’s not about results. For me, it’s about the experience,” she said. “I want them to take in the experience, to understand it and to come back with a feeling of what their strengths are, what their weaknesses are and what we need to work on for the season.”

For the U14s, the trip will also help them understand what the competition will be like at nationals in Calgary next year.

“I’m just excited that they are willing to go out there and try something new like a tournament like this,’ she said. “I think the exposure will be good for them.”

Jensen, Melanson and Tonner face their first competition in Montreal this weekend at the Quebec Open.

They’ll participate in a training camp for a week in Quebec and suit up again for the Ontario Open in Toronto on Nov. 12 and 13.