You might have witnessed a future Pinty's or Viterra Scotties champion on the ice this weekend as Saskatchewan students represented their sport.
The Seniors High School curling tournament once again was among us, and it was certainly an electrifying time for it – most especially given that it fell on the heels of both the Pinty's and the CurlSask Viterra Scotties and SaskTel Tankard in Melville. High schools across Saskatchewan provided the best secondary school curling there was to offer, no surprise, really, given that the province's provincial sport was the one being represented.
“This is the East Central District Seniors Curling, and it's for boys, girls, and mixed so we had three different divisions going,” explained Kerrie Shearer of Sacred Heart.
“We have teams here today [and] this weekend from Melville, Kamsack, Yorkton Regional [High School], Esterhazy, Sacred Heart, Norquay, Sturgis, Churchbridge. All of those different communities came together with their high school teams, and we send out two teams per division to the regionals. Regionals for these guys will be February 28th, in either Moosomin or Whitewood, depending on which division they're part of. Then, the winners out of there would go on to the provincials.”
As one could imagine, the students are extremely serious about their sport. They frequently practice after hours, on their own teams, at different levels. They'll grab any experience they can get to become the very best on the rink, and it shows.
“A lot of these kids actually end up playing league as well, working harder at their game related to them as a team, and then they all come to different facilities,” says Shearer.
“[For example], Yorkton Regional and Sacred Heart come here [to the Yorkton Curling Club] to practice. But all these small towns also have rinks, so they're all heading down to their own rink to practice as well. A lot of them have opportunities as well for competition, and against adults in the leagues they attend. They work hard at this.”
Winners were aplenty, and some tough matches played themselves out over the championship weekend.
“We have already handed out a few medals for a few of our other divisions. Canora Composite went home with the mixed gold medal, and Sturgis boys went home with the gold medal as well.”
Kerrie motions to the ice.
“And now these two are playing for the gold medal relating to the girls' division.”
RESULTS:
Boys
Gold- Sturgis
Silver - Esterhazy
Bronze - Norquay
Mixed
Gold - Canora
Silver - YRHS
Bronze - Esterhazy
Girls
Gold - YRHS
Silver - Sturgis
Bronze - Esterhazy
