It was a tumultuous, but ultimately rewarding, curling season for local curler Troy Harms.
You may remember a story from last November, when the Regional Optimist reported Troy was selected as one of 14 SaskEnergy Junior Stars for the Capital One Canada Cup in Moose Jaw.
The Junior Stars selected had each given a winning answer to the question "how I give back to my community." The winners were paired with teams that competed at the Canada Cup in November.
Troy was teamed with the Glenn Howard rink and was able to walk out onto the ice with them during the pre-game ceremonies, a memorable experience for the North Battleford curler. Troy also won a gift bag and other prizes.
That was only the beginning of a memorable journey in curling for the Grade 12 student from John Paul II Collegiate. The Regional Optimist caught up with Troy recently to find out how he fared since then.
It turned out the biggest challenge for Troy was finding a team to play on. The team that Troy had played with the previous season had split up, with one team member moving away while the other had left for university.
That left Troy and Matt Taylor, a student from the North Battleford Comprehensive High School in need of new teammates. The search proved to be tough. There weren't enough players at JPII or even at the NBCHS to form a team of their own.
"We tried looking around town, between both the high schools and anyone in town," said Troy.
"It was hard to find people that really were committed, that would come out at least every second night. When it got in the heavy season, every weeknight we were curling, plus weekends we had bonspiels. So we needed people with a lot of commitment."
Troy went through a scout book and approached Jordi Skolrood of Maidstone, who also knew Jordyn Hope, who said she could curl as well.
Matt Taylor skipped the team, with Troy as the third. The coach of the team was Brad Taylor, Matt's dad.
While all were enthusiastic curlers, they had never played together before.
According to Troy's mom, Shannon, that meant hours were put in by the team practising at the Northland Power Curling Centre - a facility that left quite an impression on all of them.
Shannon said the team would practice four or five times a night and enter any bonspiel they could, just so they could get experience playing together. Troy said the early part of the season was rough as the new team tried to figure out what would work best on the ice.
Troy recalls Jordi and Jordyn travelled to North Battleford multiple times to practice and get ready for bonspiels. During Thursday open leagues, the team played other teams constantly.
The hard work paid off once it came time for playdowns to get underway. "It's quite amazing that this team had never curled before, kind of got it together and went as far as they did," Shannon said.
The Taylor rink won at regionals and advanced to provincials in Shaunavon in mid-March.
The team would have been happy just with a top-four finish, but surprised even themselves by making it all the way to the final game for the championship, losing 7-1 to the Kent Evenson rink on March 17.
"We just couldn't pull it off. It was a good game, though," said Troy.
The team they lost to had also won the provincial high school championship and had been curling together for years, so that softened the sting of defeat for Troy and his teammates a little bit.
Overall, Troy has fond memories of the whole experience curling with the Taylor rink.
"It was by far the best season I've ever had. It was my favorite. It was a team that I really liked. They were dedicated, they wanted to win. It wasn't my only goal, but it's nice to really have a team that likes to go far."
He also gave credit to the sponsors and also to the parents as well. "They were very involved, they helped us out. They made sure everything worked for us, and took time off. Having a team and families like that was really nice."
It was a memorable way for Troy to wrap up his Grade 12 year.
For next season, both he and Matt plan to attend the Kevin Martin Curling Camp in August. After that, Troy says he is likely to head to the University of Saskatchewan and stay competitive next year as well.
That means he is once again in the familiar position of looking for new teammates for another season of curling, as his teammates will be in different places come the fall.
"I am trying to get another competitive men's team together and hopefully keep going with it as far as I can."
