CENTRAL MANITOULIN—The Providence Bay and Mindemoya Curling Clubs hosted the North Shore Secondary School Athletics Association boys’ and girls’ curling championships, respectively, last week with the girls advancing to play yesterday and today (Tuesday and Wednesday) at the Northern Ontario Secondary School Athletics (NOSSA) curling championships in Sault Ste. Marie.
The Mustang boys’ team hosted Central Algoma Secondary School of Desbarats and Espanola High School at the Mindemoya Curling Club on Wednesday and Thursday of last week, coming out with a record of 1 and 3, placing third.
The boys’ team consists of skip Bryce Mastelko, vice Jordan Moore, second Sean Patterson, lead Alex Ingram and fifth Isaac Gosse.
“They were three very well matched teams,” said coach Angela Johnston who commended the boys on their game.
“The boys had a good season,” Ms. Johnston added, noting that the boys also had a first place win in the Mindemoya Men’s Bonspiel second event this winter. “I saw a lot of growth. We should have a pretty good program at MSS for the next few years.”
As of press-time Monday, the girls’ team was on its way to Sault Ste. Marie to get ready for an 8 am Tuesday game. The girls’ team of skip Rebecca Dawson, vice Morgan Hall, second Emily Tardiff and lead Jary White, coached by the skip’s mom Dawn Dawson, saw a round robin record of 5-1.
“At the end of the round robin, the girls were tied for first against Blind River (Ecole Secondaire Jeunesse-Nord),” Coach Johnston explained. The top two teams then played a tie-breaker game, which Blind River won, putting them in first place, making the Mustangs a ‘B rep’ team at NOSSA.
Both curling clubs attracted a number of fans to cheer the teams on, speaking in hushed tones as the Mustangs took their turns in the hack.
The girls will be up against seven other top teams from across the North today.
Curling is one of the longest high school sport seasons of the year, beginning as soon as the Providence Bay Curling Club ice goes in, usually at the end of October. There, the boys’ and girls’ teams practice against one another and also curl in league play against both the adult teams and the Special Olympics team.
“It was nice to be the host and welcome everyone to Manitoulin,” Ms. Johnston said of last week’s curling events.
