NEXTGEN TALENT HITS EDMONTON
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NEXTGEN CLASSIC GETS UNDERWAY AT EDMONTON’S SAVILLE CENTRE
For the third year in a row, Edmonton’s Saville Community Sports Centre has become a hotbed of early-season curling activity.
Already this week, Curling Canada hosted a technical review for Member Association representatives, while at the same time working with U-21 and U-27 National NextGen Program teams.
On Tuesday, however, the operation will shift gears from instructional to competitive. Once again, The Curling Canada U-25 NextGen Classic will feature a men’s, a women’s, and a mixed doubles event.
Both the men and women will get underway on Tuesday. Team Serena Gray-Withers (Edmonton) will look to win the women’s event for the third year in a row. Gray-Withers, along with Catherine Clifford, Lindsey Burgess, and Zoe Cinnamon won the inaugural event, and repeated as champs last summer – retaining the NextGen Classic Championship belt.
“We’ve got 12 men’s, 12 women’s, and 20 mixed doubles teams. We have teams from B.C. to Newfoundland, all across the country,” said Helen Radford, Curling Canada’s Manager of Youth and NextGen programming. “We had a huge waitlist, which was fantastic. We filled it with no problem.”
On the men’s side, Sam Mooibroek (Kitchener, Ont.) will look to regain the title after winning in 2022, and finishing runner up in 2023.
Also in their respective fields, the reigning champions from the New Holland U-21 Canadian Championship. Halifax’s Team Ally MacNutt and Calgary’s Team Kenan Wipf both claimed national titles at last season’s event in Fort McMurray – Wood Buffalo, Alta.
They’ll both be fighting up a weight-class, as the U-25 NextGen Classic allows for players with an average age of 25 to compete. This includes some teams competing in U Sports and Canadian Collegiate programs, along with other teams finding success in the years just out of juniors.
Champions not only receive a berth in the 2024 PointsBet Invitational (September 25-29,2024 in Calgary), they also receive $6,000 in NextGen funding which includes opportunities to work with national coaches and other experts. Runners-up take home $4,000.
All games will be streamed on the Curling Stadium Youtube channel found here: https://www.youtube.com/@CurlingZone
Scores and draws can be found at http://curling.ca/scoreboard