No junior nationals and no travel last season makes curlers something something.
At least this season, there will be some travel for the juniors and a couple of rinks will be in the air on Saturday to Saskatoon for the first big event of the season.
It鈥檚 the World Juniors Qualifier, hosted by Curling Canada, and the NWT will be represented by rinks from the Yellowknife Curling Centre. Cassie Rogers will be skipping the girls rink of Chasity O鈥橩eefe, Kali Skauge and Grace Twa while Jullian Bowling will get his first taste of skipping at the national level as he leads his rink of Shawn Dragon, Tasir Bhuiyan and Ian Gau into battle on the boys side.
This event is a make-up for no 2021 Canadian Juniors due to the pandemic and will determine who gets the chance to go to the 2022 World Junior Curling Championships in J枚nk枚ping, Sweden this coming March.
The boys will go into the bonspiel ranked 10th out of 12 while the girls are seeded 12th. Those rankings were determined on how each province and territory performed at the last Canadian Juniors in Langley, B.C., in January 2020.
Tara Naugler will be coaching the boys entry and said it鈥檚 a young squad that will be on the ice but an excited bunch, nonetheless, and they鈥檙e ready.
鈥淭he amount of curling you got last season depends on where you were and we were fortunate that we curled a lot last year,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e have a couple of line-up changes but the boys are excited for the challenge.鈥�
Adam Naugler was the original skip but he鈥檚 away at university and wasn鈥檛 able to play, hence Bowling jumping in to throw skip stones, she added.
It will be pool play to start off with the 12 rinks divided into two pools of six. After pool play, the top three teams in each pool will advance to the playoffs with the first-place team in each pool getting a bye to the semifinal round.
The boys will square off with Quebec, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, B.C. and Saskatchewan in their pool and Naugler said it鈥檚 a one-game-at-a-time process.
鈥淲e鈥檙e just going to focus on the game we鈥檙e playing at the time and see where that takes us,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e aren鈥檛 looking ahead to certain teams.鈥�
For the girls, their pool play competition consists of Manitoba, New Brunswick, Quebec, Newfoundland and Labrador and 黑料吃瓜网 Ontario.
They, too, will be taking it one game at a time, said Brian Kelln, the team鈥檚 coach.
鈥淲e don鈥檛 look at who we can beat because if you start doing that, you鈥檒l probably end up having a disappointing game,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e have the concept that if we play well, keep it close and strategize, we can pull off a win.鈥�
Rogers and company have been together for a while now 鈥� this is the same team which went to the Canadian U18 Championships two years ago and managed to keep some of the other teams in check throughout.
Kelln figures they鈥檝e matured since then and are at the point where they can be competitive.
鈥淲e have the potential to be in every game,鈥� he said. 鈥淲hen you talk to them, there鈥檚 no fear and one of our players even feels we can win two or three games. I look at things with the glass half-full and if we can adapt to the ice quickly, we can catch a team off-guard.鈥�
Both teams have had the chance to get in some playing time over the past few weeks but practice was tough due to the regulations surrounding Covid-19. Only one player was allowed on a sheet at a time and that meant creativity had to come into play.
鈥淲e had some delays because of the recent outbreak,鈥� said Naugler. 鈥淚t was tough to coach because I would sometimes be one or two sheets away from the boys and we had some fake brooms out so the boys had something to aim at. We got around it.鈥�
While in Saskatoon, both teams plan to take in some of the action at the Tim Hortons Canadian Trials, which will be happening at the same time. The plan for both is to take in the Sunday afternoon action, where Kevin Koe will be playing Brad Gushue of Newfoundland and Labrador.
