LITTLE CURRENT—If it is great, competitive curling you are craving, the Northern Ontario Curling Association (NOCA) Men’s and Women’s Provincial Championships should fill your appetite. There will be legends in the game on hand, rinks from all over Northern Ontario and several local curlers taking part.
“It will be an excellent event,” stated Joe Cooper of the Little Current Curling Club (LCCC) which is hosting the Northern Ontario championships, taking place January 23-28. “There will be a total of 20 rinks taking part, 14 on the men’s side and six on the lady’s side. We have teams from Thunder Bay, North Bay, Sudbury, Copper Cliff, Sault Ste. Marie, Little Current and Timmins.”
The Jordan Chandler rink (which will include his brother Kyle Chandler) from the Little Current Curling Club will be taking part. Mr. Chandler’s rink made it to the semi-finals in 2018, the first time the Island had hosted the Northern Ontario championship.
“Another rink with a local flavour will be the Assad rink (Copper Cliff Curling Club) with Chris Gordon and his son Matt on the team,” said Mr. Cooper. “Chris, who is the son of Bruce and Helen Gordon of Little Current, grew up in Little Current and lives in Sudbury now.”
Mr. Cooper also pointed out coaches for two of the teams are icons in the sport of curling. “Al Hackner will be coaching one of the men’s teams while Rick Lang will be coaching one of the ladies rinks. Mr. Hackner, nicknamed the “Iceman” will be coaching the Trevor Bonot rink out of the Fort William Curling Club in Thunder Bay. He and Rick Lang won the world championships together in 1982 and 1985, has won the Brier, and have been winners in seniors and mixed division team competitions.”
“Rick Lang will be coaching the Krista McCarville rink, which is the defending champion, from the Fort William Curling Club in Thunder Bay,” continued Mr. Cooper.
The full lineup of men’s rinks includes the defending champion Tanner Horgan rink from the Northern Credit Union (NCU) Community Centre in Sudbury, the MacEwan rink from Sudbury, the Bonot rink from Thunder Bay, the Jordan Chandler rink from Little Current, the Adams jr, Warkentin and Burgess rinks from the Port Arthur Curling Centre, the Minogue rink from the North Bay Granite Club, the Silver team from Fort William Curling Club, Assad rink from Copper Cliff, the Hunt rink from YNCU Curling Centre, Rajala rink from NCU Community Centre, the Deschene rink from YNCU Curling Centre and O’Bright rink from the North Bay Granite Club.
The ladies’ rinks include the defending champion McCarville rink from Fort William Curling Club, the Johnston rink from the North Bay Granite Club, McCormick rink from Idylwylde Curling Club in Sudbury, Deschene from McIntyre Curling Club of Timmins, Burns rink from NCU Curling Centre in Sudbury, Despins rink from the Fort William Curling Club in Thunder Bay.
“The men’s division will have a triple knockout format, meaning each rink can lose two games and still qualify for the finals,” said Mr. Cooper. On the ladies’ side, “they will take part in a round-robin format.”
“The teams will have a practice day on January 23, with the competition to start on January 24 at 9 am with three draws,” said Mr. Cooper.
Opening ceremonies will take place on January 24 at 6 pm, with a player/sponsor reception to take place at 7 pm in the NEMI recreation complex.
“With the event to take place in January, local businesses in Little Current and across the Island should do well,” said Mr. Cooper.
Mr. Cooper stated, “again this time in hosting this event we have been very fortunate in relation to the sponsors we had come forward to provide support.”
