Nunavut Treated to Excellent Week Long Futsal Camp with Geraldo Ferrari

Only one week after the completion of the Futsal Canadian Championships in Calgary, the futsal-hungry players of Nunavut were already back on the court in preparations for next year’s nationals.

In order to take their game to a higher level they decided to bring in one of Canada’s elite futsal specialists.

Brazilian-born Geraldo Ferrari was very excited to take the opportunity to rediscover the region and culture of Nunavut and, of course, to once again share his futsal expertise with the local community.

An assistant coach with the Canadian Men’s National Team in 2012, Ferrari has decades of futsal playing and coaching experience from his time in Brazil, the USA, and now in Canada, where he has resided for the last 16 years. After spending several years in New Brunswick and Quebec, he now calls Alberta home.

This is his second time conducting a course for Nunavut with the last one coming in 2016. He has also conducted courses for Canada Soccer and the Ontario Soccer Association and was a part of Canada’s only FIFA Futsal Course.

“It was a really nice time to come here and teach the players,” said Ferrari. You can see that they are hungry to learn as much as possible about futsal. It is my second time here in Nunavut and the hospitality and friendliness of everyone is amazing. It is very important that everyone in Canada have access to futsal and I am very humbled and grateful for the opportunity to come and help.‘

One of the key leaders of Nunavut’s futsal program, Kris Okpatauyak, was keen to bring in someone to teach them futsal specific tactics and when he heard Ferrari was available he did not hesitate to make it happen.

“It’s been an amazing camp, a big learning curve but it will only get better for all of us. We are finally learning the systems. Ferrari has such incredible knowledge and is the right guy for this. We are going to practice it all year and bring him up again before nationals and also before the kid’s big Territorial Tournament. We’re going to help continue this momentum and it’s going to make a big difference for our teams and our community.”

The week long camp was held at the Maani Ulujuk Ilinniarvik (MUI) gym in Ranklin Inlet. A very diverse group of over 70 participants, the majority of players hail from Indigenous communities, at multiple age groups ranging from 12-16 years old, for both girls and boys. At night time the women’s and men’s teams fine-tuned their futsal set plays and tactical rotations.

The players were extremely happy with the valuable learning experience and intend to continue plying their futsal trade throughout the year in the hopes of one day making the Canadian national team.