There's a nice mixture of experience and youth making up the Yukon's 2009 Canada Summer Games running team.

The squad is busy training hard, meeting together four times each week at F.H. Collins Secondary School.

The team has not only benefitted from the mentorship of head coach Don White, who first coached a Canada Summer Games running group back in 1993, but also some of its mission staff, including Ammon Hoefs, who is a two time Canada Summer Games track participant.

Hoefs is excited about his new role this year.

"It's a really cool experience," he said about the Canada Summer Games. "You meet some really interesting people and the best athletes in Canada. It's a really good experience to show you what's out there, so if you have some ambition you can see exactly what kind of potential is out there.

"It's a good eye opening experience for sure."

Hoefs, 24, attended the 2003 and 2005 Canada Summer Games, but couldn't go as an athlete for a third straight time because of his age.

He said this will provide him with a great opportunity to see another aspect of games, in terms of the administrative side.

Hoefs thinks the Yukon's team looks good and he singled out Anna Rivard, who, racing in the juvenile women's category at the 25th annual Jack Brow Track and Field Meet in Kelowna, BC, placed first in the 100-m. The competition was held in June.

Rivard's Canada Summer Games running teammate, Logan Roots also competed in Kelowna and enjoyed a top finish of sixth place in the juvenile men's 3,000-m.

Logan's time was 9:46.16 and just a minute behind the winner. This was Roots' first competition running this distance.

Other members include 20-year-old James Yeulet, who is preparing for his second Canada Summer Games in the sport.

The main difference for Yeulet in 2009 this year is he is running shorter distances, including the 200-m and 400-m.

"I feel like I am prepared enough for it. I just need more training, more time," he said. "It's a great competition, there's lots of good athletes out there, lots of good people to talk to, ask for help. People are mostly nice about it."

Eighteen-year-old Brittany Pearson-Smith is preparing for her first Canada Summer Games on the Yukon running team. She said the training is going really well.

"It's getting hard now, finally, but it's all good," Pearson-Smith said. "I like it."

Pearson-Smith is also a member of the Yukon Ski Team and has been balancing training for both sports, which she said complement each other.

She said she will definitely race the five-km distance at the Canada Summer Games and is using the weekly Intersport runs to prepare for it. The Intersport race is also five-km and is held every Tuesday at 6 p.m., starting at F.H. Collins.

Pearson-Smith said she hopes to get her time down into the sub-20s before the Summer Games and is currently about half a minute off.

She expects it to be a lot of fun at the 2009 Games, which are being held in P.E.I. for the final two weeks of August.

"I have never been to P.E.I. before and this is a great crew of people, so no matter what it is going to be a blast," Pearson-Smith said, adding if she could finish in the middle of the pack for the five-km distance she would be happy.

Robin Chambers, assistant coach for the Yukon's running team, said the squad is looking really good.

"This level of athletes is pretty exciting to work with," she said. "They are all very dedicated, everyone always shows up, even on Friday night."

Chambers is coaching the Canada Summer Games team as a part of an Aboriginal Sports Circle mentorship program, which is in its test year.