With the provincial curling championship season in full swing, the Parksville Curling Club this weekend will host one B.C. event while another group of local curlers will travel to another.
Parksville Curling Club welcomes the province’s top mixed curlers beginning today in a venue ideally suited for the 2017 AMJ Campbell Mixed Curling Championship.
The club, located in Community Park in downtown Parksville, is the former home of the community hockey arena, and boasts a five-sheet curling surface on what had originally been a hockey floor.
“Players who go on to compete in national and international competitions in arenas love coming here, because it’s arena ice,” said Bruce Laurie, local tournament director.
The tournament will include eight teams bidding for a spot in the national mixed curling championships at Swan River Curling Club in November. The Vancouver Island entry is the Chris Baier rink of Victoria.
Meanwhile, the Ballenas Secondary School girls team, whose members train in Parksville and compete in the junior program here, will enter the B.C. Secondary School championships beginning today and running through Saturday at Smithers Curling Club.
The team features skip Jada Zimmerman, third Lauren Onushko, second Amanda Litton, lead Teya Vega and fifth Michaela Morrill, and is coached by Brian Onushko.
Two weeks later, Morril and Lauren Onushko will be back in action, along with Libby Elliott of Coombs, in the inaugural B.C. U18 curling championships. The three are part of the rink skipped by Port Alberni’s Rebecca Douglas, which qualified by winning the Island zone tournamnent at Nanaimo Curling Centre last month.
The U18 Curling Championships are scheduled for March 16-19 at Nanaimo Curling Centre.
— NEWS Staff