Brian Stuart loves table tennis.

Even if he admits he's a poor player.

"I'm what I would describe as a ping-pong player. I'm the guy who plays in the basement.”

But as an official, Stuart is among the best in the region.

And for his deft eye and love of the game, he was given the Jerry Smith Spirit of the Game Award at the Alaska Yukon Challenge held in Fairbanks last weekend.

"It's a pretty big honour. It was fantastic. You know when they give out awards like that, they explain how wonderful the receiver is, and I was looking around wondering who it was. Then they said my name. It was just like one of those moments where you think – ‘This is fantastic!'”

The award was first given out at the 2010 tournament in Anchorage in memory of Smith, who passed away in February 2009.

He loved table tennis and was a co-director of the first Alaska Yukon Challenge in 2008 in Fairbanks, the inaugural year of the event, and won the 2009 team trophy at the Whitehorse tournament.

Stuart won the prestigious award this year as chief umpire and computer specialist for the past four years.

He noted that last time around the award was given to a player.

"This year they awarded it to me. Apparently I was having a good time, I guess,” he laughed. "And I guess they appreciated my work. His wife was there and she was sitting with me a lot of the time, so it was very nice. It was a big surprise, that's for sure.”

Stuart wasn't the only Yukoner to pick up hardware.

Alex and David Zheng, Haider Rajab, Kyle Gonder, Ryan Bachli and David Stockdale represented Table Tennis Yukon at the Challenge.

Rajab won bronze in the U1,000-points singles event by beating Fairbanks' player Sam Joseph 5-11, 11-6, 11-7, 12-14 and 11-8.

Rajab then teamed up with Gonder to win gold in the U1,000 team event, with three straight ties to win the title and the traveling trophy.

"I was happy we came away with a little hardware,” said Stockdale, who is president of Table Tennis Yukon and who dusted off his paddle to make up an even six-person team in Fairbanks.

He explained that the tournament is based on handicapping points, i.e., a highly ranked player would give points to a lower ranked player.

This system makes the Challenge a "great leveler,” Stockdale said.

"When you play a top player against a weak player, it's not much fun for either player; but when it's like this, and the top player can't afford to be slack, they have to really play on their game.”

Stockdale said the club's players could learn a thing or two from Gonder, an up-and-coming player who improves with every match.

"He's certainly dedicated; he's been out to practice on a very regular basis when some of the others aren't really putting in the time that they should,” Stockdale said.

"He's a really good role model for everybody. Some of us know what you need to do in order to succeeed and become a good player. There's a certain kind of player that comes along, and you can almost tell right away that maybe he's not been into other sports, but he just seems to have an attitude towards this game that he displays. Ryan (Bachli) had the same attitude when he first came into the game, some good basic strokes first of all, and he was just dedicated.”

That thread of dedication runs through the club.

As does ambition.

Stuart – who is already a provincially certified referee – is looking to make the jump to national certification.

"He's very good under pressure,” Stockdale said. "He doesn't get panicked or anything when results are coming in or a slight mistake is made or somebody drops out and you have to redo the draw. I get kind of hyper and I get in people's face, but Brian is just relaxed and he'd have it fixed in no time.”

To get his national-level, Stuart would have to undergo a course offered by the Canadian Table Tennis Association.

"That would be pretty exciting to do, because that opens up more opportunities: once you become national-level, then you can do other things, like they'll invite you to some of the bigger events in the States, even though you're not international,” Stuart said. "That'd be pretty fun too. I've been pretty lucky with not having to spend a whole lot of money to get to where I am.”

Stockdale noted that Lotteries Yukon helps out Table Tennis Yukon.