South Delta secondary school had arguably its best weekend ever in a trio B.C. School Sports provincial championships.
While the gymnastics team was winning a provincial title in Burnaby, and the junior lacrosse placed third at its provincial tourney, the boys and girls curling teams were competing at the B.C. high school championships in Dawson Creek.
The boys rink came back from a slow start to finish third, after a tiebreaker against Coquitlam, while the girls foursome rolled to seven straight victories, knocking off two-time defending champion South Kamloops in the final to win the provincial title.
Coach and school sponsor James Brown said the SDSS girls were in complete control against Kamloops, matching them shot for shot in what became a very fast takeout game. By the fifth end, Kamloops seemed to be getting a little flustered and started missing shots.
South Delta built up a 4-1 lead and then never let Kamloops have more than one rock in play the rest of the way, eventually running them out of rocks to win 5-2.
This is the first provincial curling championship for the school since 1984 and it was the best ever finish for the boys team.
Brown was very proud of the curlers' ability to deal with pressure, their teamwork and overall deportment in representing South Delta.
"South Delta will have a new crop of curlers next year, so this was a fitting end to the high school careers of our Grade 12s," he said. "The kids have put in a huge amount of practice, much of it self directed, and have progressed amazingly over the course of the last two years.
"We will be looking for young curlers next year that we can hopefully develop into provincial contenders down the road.
Fortunately, we still have two of our girls and one of our boys to lead the way."
The girls team consists of Shawna Jensen (skip), Kayla Graham (third), Kaitlyn Sim (second), and Krista Jensen (lead).
The boys team is Cody Tanaka (skip), Donny MacKintosh (third), Louie Wong (second), Jackson MacKinnon (lead), and Alex Masarsky (lead).
The SDSS program would like to thank the Tunnel Town Curling Club for its ongoing support. A trip all the way to Dawson Creek would not have been possible without the club's help. Special thanks go to club manager Sandra MacKinnon, and to Barb Evans, who has been an unofficial team mom for a number of years, coming out to all the bonspiels and supplying the kids with her delicious home baking.
The B.C. high school curling championships is an outstanding event thanks to the continued sponsorship of Rio Tinto Alcan.
