Ordinarily when one hears about a bunch of teenagers throwing rocks it isn’t a good thing.
However, if you happen to be part of one of Barrhead Composite High School’s (BCHS) curling teams it is something that is encouraged.
On the weekend of Feb. 23rd and 24th two of three BCHS rinks, the girls and mixed, were rewarded for their excellence by winning their respective divisions at a north central zone provincial high school qualifying bonspiel in Westlock.
On the girls side the BCHS rink, comprised of Sinead O’Neil (lead), Avary Kostiw (second), Kayla Nanninga (third) and Lauren Kostiw (skip), went undefeated in three games.
Coach Rod Phillips said the girls, in their first two games against R.F. Staples and Boyle, won in convincing fashion.
“Our third and final game against Morinville was definitely the most difficult,” Phillips said in an e-mail interview, adding going into the eighth end they were trailing. “We were able to tie it up and in the extra end we were able to steal the point for the win.”
By going undefeated, the girls finished first in their pool and were given a bye into the finals where they once again played Morinville.
“This is where the girls’ skills were really on display,” he said. “In the first end they scored four, stole two more in the second and by the seventh end, Morinville decided to shake hands giving BCHS the win, 10 to 2.”
Unfortunately he said the boys didn’t fair as well. The team of Jason Den Broder, Henry Murray, Will Litke, Austin VanAert and Scott Phillips did not win their first two games and were eliminated from contention.
“Although the boys were disappointed, they had fun playing together and are looking forward to next season,” Phillips said.
On the mixed side BCHS Team Cramer (Jayden Cramer, skip, Tayler Measures, third, Riley Schaffrick, second, and Reese Czerny, lead) also finished the round robin undefeated. In the first game BCHS played the host team R.F. Staples. After eight ends the teams were tied, 3-3. In the extra end, Barrhead without the hammer, scored three for the win.
In the next two games BCHS outscored their opponents, Athabasca and Whitecourt, 9-3 and 11-2 respectively to finish at the top of their pool.
Like the girls, BCHS was given the bye and advanced to the championship game, where they defeated Westlock 9-2.
“I was very impressed how well the team played in each game,” said coach Krista Measures via e-mail. “Especially in the gold medal game. They made some really good shots, found draw weight and just kept putting pressure on the other team to make shots.”
The Provincial High School Championships took place in St. Albert from Feb. 28 to March 3. Results were not known as of our press deadline.
