SUDBURY—Manitoulin-raised Kyle Chandler and his rink have won the Northern Ontario Policing Curling Association (NOPCA) provincial championships for the second consecutive year. They will be playing in the Canadian championship in the new year.
“Yes, our rink won this year. We won the provincials last year as well,” said Mr. Chandler. His rink, which included skip Charlie Robert (provincial constable with the Sault Ste. Marie OPP), second Nick Servant (constable with the Sault Ste. Marie Police Service), and lead Steve Muenier (South Porcupine OPP) won three games and dropped two at the provincials, held in Sault Ste. Marie earlier this month.
“We’ve been together as a team for a while,” said Mr. Chandler, who is acting sergeant and a member of the Greater Sudbury Police Service tactical unit and explosive disposal unit. “We went 7-4 at the nationals last year, just missing the playoffs.”
“Our goal this year is to make it to the playoffs,” stated Mr. Chandler. “We have a good team. In the games that we lose, we lose mostly because we are not sharp.”
Mr. Chandler pointed out that in the provincials his rink won their first two games, which automatically meant they were going to the finals. They defeated the Steve Mitchell rink of North Bay in the finals. Mr. Mitchell is a member of the North Bay Anishinabek Police Services.
The policing curling association is run in much the same format as Curling Canada, with one important exception: all players must be sworn peace officers. This includes police officers, corrections, border security and conservation officers. Competition wise, a lot of these curlers have been involved in competitive curling before. Many have gone to the national level outside of the police competition.
Nationals will take place in Levis, Quebec April 1-9.
