The Gang’s All Here

FIELD FINALLY COMPLETE AT SASKATOON’S U-18 CHAMPIONSHIP

It’s not often that the Opening Ceremony of an event takes place after Draw #11. 

Sure, sometimes you get a game or two in before the piper, the speeches, and the photos – but most of the time, all that takes place towards the end of the first day. 

But nothing has been ordinary about this edition of the Canadian Under-18 Championship, taking place at the Nutana Curling Club in Saskatoon. As of Tuesday night, five teams were still in transit after several days of travel delays. 

No ceremony was going to be held until the field was fully represented. 

It finally went ahead Wednesday night, with all 42 teams finally in attendance. 

“We were just trying to keep hope that it was going to happen,” said Kacey Gauthier, third on the P.E.I. team who was four-days late arriving. “That was the biggest thing. We just had to hope that we were going to get there, and that we’d still be able to play our games.” 

After initially planning to leave on Friday, the team from the Cornwall Curling Club dealt with one cancellation after another, and then nearly three days of snow-storms in Toronto, before finally reaching Saskatoon late Tuesday night.  

They played their first game on Wednesday. 

“We were so thrilled that Curling Canada was willing to change the schedule,” said Gauthier. “It really makes all of it worth it. It would have been really tough if we would have been forced to miss all those games.” 

Event managers were forced to reconstruct the schedule several times to accommodate the delays, and miraculously, all teams will play a full slate of round robin games by the end of the week. All teams were willing to cope with the changes in the spirit of fair play. 

“We kept thinking ‘My God, I hope this plane takes off…. When is the snow going to stop?’” said Gauthier during their three-day storm-stay in Toronto. “We got a bit of ice time, did a little shopping trip and watched a LOT of the Scotties on TV.” 

Now that the field is all accounted for, the tournament is in full swing. It is difficult, however, to compare records at this point because some teams have played five games, while the new arrivals have only played two.  

On the male side of the competition, Waterloo, Ont.’s Tyler MacTavish (ON1) and Pointe Claire, Que.’s Zachary Janidlo (QC2) lead the pack – both with perfect 5-0 records. There are three other teams still undefeated as well, albeit with fewer wins. 

Only Abby Desormeau from Red Deer, Atla and Cassidy Blades from Halifax remain unbeaten on the female side of the draw. The Alberta #2 team and Nova Scotia #1 are both 4-0 . 

The round robin portion of the draw will wrap up Friday with the top ten teams moving forward to playoffs. 

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