You’ve blown past your man and into what you thought was easy-lay-in promised land. Then just as your finger roll’s about to reach its peak, Pokiak leaps up to bat your baby back to half-court. In a league where no player we can think of averages more than two blocks per game, this man-child at times sends back nearly 10 shots a contest.

Toiling on an underperforming Junior Men’s team, many expected this to be Pokiak’s breakout season. After spending the summer building his calf muscles pushing shopping carts at Wal-mart and running the streets of downtown Yellowknife with a tire around his neck for resistance on his rare days off, Pokiak’s certainly done the work to get ready.

On offense, he’s as comfortable on the wing as he is on the block. And he’s definitely shown flashes of brilliance like last Thursday’s quiet 26 on Surly Bob’s. But Pokiak needs to be fed more regularly if his teammates expect him to put up anything close to that number on a regular basis.

We expect the kids to start gelling and bring home a few Ws from Whitehorse this week. And if they come back and start using their unique combination of skill and fitness to run all over the rest of the league, we expect Pokiak to play a significant role in that rise.