NUNAVUT WINS THE CROWD 

YOUNG TEAM FROM IQALUIT BECOMES CROWD FAVOURITES WHILE GAINING SKILLS & EXPERIENCE 

Out of the 42 teams at the Canadian Under-18 Curling Championship in Saskatoon, it is safe to say that many of them made goals like “reach the playoffs” or “win a game.” The more experienced teams probably showed up with a gold medal in mind. 

The young team from Nunavut, however, kept their expectations a little more modest. 

“Our goal was to score a point in every game,” said 13-year-old skip Ciaran Robinson. 

The Iqaluit-based foursome of Robinson, David Hoyt, Nicholas Smith, and Noah Smith range in age from 13 to 15, and all have less than a full season of experience under their belts.  

“Last year, we might have had ten hours of ice-time before we played in the Arctic Winter Games,” said Robinson. “We’ve had more time this year, but we’re still probably under 100 hours total.” 

While their five games have all ended on the wrong side of lopsided scoreboards, the Nunavut squad has, in fact, met their goal. They’ve scored at least one point in each game, and as many as four against Alberta #2 – which turned out to be more of an educational friendly by the second half of the game. 

“Every opponent we’ve had has been first rate,” said coach Jeremy Smith. “They’ve been simply fantastic. They’ve helped the boys, and help teach things that they were lacking. It’s improved them tremendously.” 

“It’s been amazing,” said lead Noah Smith. “The other teams have been great, helping us out and teaching us things.” 

The friendships and camaraderie has become one of the main stories of the week. Every shot the Nunavut team makes is followed by cheers and applause from the other curlers watching in the stands. In their Thursday afternoon game versus Prince Edward Island, the noise was deafening. 

“We thought they were cheering for somebody else,” said second Nicholas Smith. 

After one particularly loud celebration, one of the P.E.I. women’s team was heard on the livestream saying, “The Nunavut love is real!” 

“I wasn’t expecting anybody to be cheering for us,” said Robinson. “It was surprising. I guess people like underdogs. We just want people to think we were a fun team to play.” 

“I’m really proud of what they’ve done this week,” said coach Jeremy Smith. “They’ve been good sportsmen, they’ve been close to making some great shots, and have made some really good ones. They’ve all improved so much this year.” 

While the Nunavut squad has yet to win a game, there is no doubt that the memories and motivation that comes from this week will last longer than any victory. 

Meanwhile, the round robin draw will wind up Friday afternoon. The top ten teams from each gender will advance to the playoff round, which will wrap up with the finals on Saturday afternoon. 

While there are still many games left to play, it is safe to say that NS1 (Blades), ON1 (Frlan), AB1 (Yurko), QC2 (St-James), and AB2 (Desormeau) will safely advance to the playoff round in the female division.  

In the male event, NS1 (Atherton), QC1 (Tremblay), QC2 (Janidlo), MB1 (Sugden), and ON1 (MacTavish) have punched their tickets to playoffs. 

The remaining spots will be decided when the dust settles on Friday afternoon following Draw 18. 

For scores and standings, visit http://curling.ca/scoreboard 

All games are streaming on Curling Canada’s Youtube channel found at http://youtube.com/curlingcanada