With competition set to begin in just over a week, the excitement is building for the players on the Yukon's two participating squads at this year's World Broomball Championships.

Both teams are gearing up for the tournament, which is being held in Burnaby, B.C. from Nov. 4 to 8 and on Sunday held their first official practice session at the Canada Games Centre.

"We are pretty excited," said Chris Ziegler, coach of both the Yukon's mens' masters team and the co-ed squad. "There's a few people that are nervous, including myself, but a lot of these guys have been playing for a lot of years and I think they will calm down after the first game. We will be alright."

There is around 50 teams competing at the 2008 Broomball Championships, including countries like Australia, Italy as well as other provinces in Canada, such as Quebec and B.C.

Originally, The Yukon Broomball Association was just going to send a masters team, however due to the high attendance and interest expressed at a meeting in August decided to send a co-ed group as well.

Ziegler said the two teams have been finalized over the past few months.

"You always want to go with your best players, and I think what we have are two pretty decent teams that will represent the Yukon in a good light," he said. "It sounds very cliché, but I think a lot of people are going down with a lot of pride knowing we are from the Yukon and this is a first for us and I am pretty excited."

The masters team is athletes 40 years of age and older, while the co-ed team features players in there teens, 20s and 30s. There will be around 30 Yukoners attending the championships between the two teams.

In Burnaby, both Yukon squads will play roughly two games a day and are guaranteed at least six matches. The playoff round will consist of a single elimination format.

Games will feature two 18-minute halves with stop time and all co-ed teams must have three men and three women on the ice at all times.

Sunday's practice was two hours in total and included drills with passing, shooting, odd man rushes and positioning. It concluded with a scrimmage between the co-ed and masters teams.

Ziegler said the Yukon's masters team will benefit from the experience of its players.

"If you look at our line up, it's a little small, but I think it's deep with the way they pass, the way they shoot and I think we may surprise a few people," he said. "I think that is a big strength though, the passing and the shooting and the knowledge of the game itself, but we there are going to be teams that are very highly skilled. They play a lot more than we do. We don't have any dreams of finishing first or winning the gold, but you never know what is going to happen."

He said the co-ed team consists of a talented group of players as well.

"I like the co-ed team, it's a really nice balance of I think between the women and the men," Ziegler said. "Just the actual knowledge of people that play with each other on the same teams. I think we have a lot of playmakers on that team and I think that is another team that may surprise a few people."

Ziegler said both teams also have extremely fit players, which will be an asset as the tournament progresses. The teams are planning on leaving for Burnaby on Sunday.

He said this is a really good opportunity for players in the Yukon.

"This is a really big deal for our game and I just think it's a great opportunity, one that doesn't come around very often," Ziegler said. "I hope it will have a lot of growth potential for our game."

Chris Saunders, a member of the Yukon's masters team, said the team is progressing heading into the tournament.

"We are getting it together, slowly," he said. "We have a lot of experienced players, so I think we expect to do well. It will be a learning experience for everybody because we have never gone out to a tournament outside of the Yukon, it's just been us local guys and girls playing amongst ourselves, so this will be a first."

The tournament will also be special for Saunders because his daughter Amber, 19, and two sons Justin, 20, and Stefan, 23, plan on playing for the co-ed team.

He said he is looking forward to the experience.

"We haven't been outside of the territory, so we haven't had a chance to see how everybody else plays the game," Saunders said.

"We know we don't play like everybody else, we almost play like it's hockey on shoes and from video tapes that other people have watched on youtub.com and on the web site that the international federation set up they play a little more ball control and we tend to play a little more run and gun."