A trio of Tunnel Town Curling Club members are getting ready to represent B.C. at the 2021 New Holland World Juniors Qualifier Nov. 22-27 in Saskatoon.
Connor Deane, Meredith Cole and Keira McCoy have earned the opportunity to represent their province by helping their rinks win a special U21 B.C. Championships held two weeks ago in Kamloops. The three have since been busy fundraising for the trip.
The nationals are a one-time tournament created to allow for seasonal COVID-19 disruptions, and will determine the two Canadian high-performance teams who will go to the 2022 World Junior Championships, slated for early March in Sweden. No funding is provided by Curl B.C., leaving it up to the teams to fund raise the best they can in a very short period of time.
“We have been doing 50/50 draws every night at Tunnel Town. It’s a great club that has always been supportive of us,” said Deane. “That was pretty special getting my first (world qualifier win) with Meredith and Kiera who I pretty much started curling with.”
Deane, who skips his team, capped a perfect run in Kamloops with a 10th end 5-4 win over Team Deng. His rink also features Joshua Miki, Mack Ellis and Brenin Moore.
“We have a great group of guys,” Deane continued. “We came together last year but, of course, everything got cancelled due to COVID.”
Cole and McCoy are members of Team Bowles, that also includes Emily Bowles and Chelsea Taylor.
Their road to victory included going 3-1 in round-robin play then defeating Team Wilson, before an 8-5 win over Team Hafeli in the final.
Bowles has taken over as the team’s skip with Jensen Taylor now focusing on school.
Following the World Qualifier, the team’s will revert back to their normal 2021-22 schedule that includes the 2022 B.C. U21 Championships, slated for at the end of January in Comox.
The winner will move onto the U21 Nationals in March that determines which rink will represent Canada at the 2023 U21 World Championships.
