Local Junior curler going to nationals

January 22, 2016 · 0 Comments

A couple of years ago, Shelburne Junior curler Kaelyn Gregory said her goal was to play in the Canadian Junior Curling Championships.

Kaelyn has now achieved that goal and will be playing in the Championships in Stratford, ON when then the tournament gets underway this Saturday, January 23.

Along with teammates Courtney Auld, Thea Coburn, and Jessica Humphries, the girls’ team won the Pepsi Ontario Junior Championship on Sunday, January 10, at the Mississauga Golf and Country Club to earn the right to the national level.

A member of the Shelburne Curling Club, as well as the Centre Dufferin District High School girls’ curling team, Kaelyn’s national team is based at the Bayview Golf and Country Club in Thornhill, ON.

The team had to win at the zone level, then at the regional level, to move up to the provincials.

Putting a championship team together is a process of finding the right fit, Kaelyn said.

“I’ve been with one of the girls for three years, but this whole team has been together for one year.

We play against a lot of players so you kind of scout players from there. Every year, a lot of teams break up and there’s a lot of players looking for new teams.

You want someone who will play well, but you also want someone who’s going to be a good friend. I’m proud to say I curl with my three best friends.”

At the provincials, the team had a 5-2 win record playing among the top eight teams in the province in the round robin tournament.

“We ended up tied with two other teams but it worked out that we had beaten those two other teams in the round robin so we got the bye to the finals,” Kaelyn explained. “The top three teams played in the finals on Sunday.”

The National Tournament is a huge deal and there is a lot of preparation that is involved, well before the tournament starts.

“After the provincials we came off the ice and had to go straight upstairs and have a meeting with the OCA (Ontario Curling Association) official and to get sized for our jackets. We had a two hour conference call one night with the Canadian Olympic coach preparing us for what is going to be happen,” Kaelyn said.

There are 14 provincial teams representing all ten provinces and two territories that will vie for the championship.

There’s a lot more going on at this level in the sport than can just be seen on the ice.

“There’s so much behind the scenes work,” Kaelyn said. “My Dad’s the coach. There are some games we would have lost if he wasn’t there.”

She also credits her high school coach, Amy Reinders, mentor Cathy Auld, the Shelburne Curling Club and the team parents and supporters who have been behind them all the way in helping the team achieve their goal.

Nationals will take place over a nine day period beginning January 23.

The winning team will go on to compete at the world championships in Erzurum, Turkey.

By Brian Lockhart