"The new kids on the block," as their coach Colleen Voinorosky called them, have earned some valued experience on the ice with the best junior curling teams in the province.
Alison Ingram, Lisa Chambers, Samatha McKee and Chennoa Tracey curl out of the Battleford Curling Club, despite none of the curlers actually being from the Battlefords.
The team was in Moose Jaw on the weekend for the provincial championship and despite not winning a match, Voinorosky said they progressively got stronger with each game.
The girls range from 14 to 17 years old and were up against teams with 20-year-old curlers and four or five years of experience at the provincial level.
Ingram lost by scores of 13-1, 7-5, 15-3, 8-1 and 8-4.
"They were quite nervous because this is quite a big step up," said Voinorosky. "Throughout their games, they got more and more self assured."
On the positive side, the Ingram team won the last stone draw, which is the format used to determine which teams will start with the hammer. Ingram's team had an accumulated measurement of 190 while the next closest team came in at 232.
Eventually the team, which is in its first year together, will meet to decide how serious they actually want to be and determine what the future holds for them. Ingram is from Barthel, while Chambers and McKee are from Turtleford and Tracey is from Loon Lake.
Two of the girls play in the league in Battleford during the week and will join up with Cole Tenetiuk of the Battlefords and another curler to form a juvenile team later this year said Voinorosky. From there the experience will continue to grow for this young group of talented curlers.
Tenetiuk also competed on the weekend in junior men's provincials in Stoughton. Tenetiuk was the third for Chadd McKenzie's team, which curled out of the Sutherland Curling Club in Saskatoon. MacKenzie's rink went 2-3 in the round robin.
