From Thursday, March 13, to Sunday, March 16, Carlyle was host to a number of curling teams from across the province who were participating in the Ramada Hotels Juvenile Provincial Championship presented by the Optimists Clubs of Saskatchewan.
Held at the Carlyle Curling Club, 23 teams participated in three divisions: women's division, men's division, and the open bonspiel.
Winners of the women's and men's divisions will be heading to the 2014 Optimist International U-18 Curling Championships April 2-6, which will be held in Cloverdale, B.C.
The Saskatchewan Provincial Championships were opened on Thursday, March 13, at 6 p.m. As the 23 teams lined the ice, Melissa Roy Brown's young singing group took to the ice to perform O Canada.
This was followed by speeches welcoming the young curlers to the event by Mayor Don Shirley, locally connected SaskCurl Executive Director Amber Holland, and Leo Grossman.
With luck wished to the young athletes, the first ceremonial rock was thrown by local curler Kristen Mitchell, a past Junior Provincial Curling silver medalist. Emmett Guider and Zach Romaniuk swept the stone, while long time curler Wilbert Hughe skipped for Mitchell.
This brought an end to the opening ceremonies, but Grossman explained that the youth had been out throwing rocks prior to the ceremonies and said the competition would be solid.
"This is 17 and under and I'm impressed with their strategy and shot making," Grossman explained.
Smiling he continued, "It's impressive, they're not just a bunch of kids throwing stones."
This interpretation of their abilities was spot on as youth began competing Friday through Sunday. Making difficult shots and following a game plan designed to win.
The women's division would see competition arise from Saskatoon, Regina, North West, North East, West Central, East Central, Â鶹ÊÓƵ West, and locally the Â鶹ÊÓƵ East team as represented by Chaelynn Kitz, Taylor Marcotte, Amy Cameron, Halynne Lamontague, and Coach Shane Kitz from Oxbow.
The men's division would see teams from Saskatoon, Regina, North West, North East, West Central, East Central, Â鶹ÊÓƵ West, and Â鶹ÊÓƵ East which was a local rink coming out of Maryfield with Brayden Stewart, Derrick Kay, Brandon McMullin, Carrick Friesen, and Coach Barb Swallow.
The open division had four teams from East Central, two from North West, and one from Regina competing in the competition.
With extremely smart play and tough competition the women's division would come down to the Kitz rink versus the Jones rink from Regina.
Jones and Kitz would battle back and forth leaving each end either with a point for one rink or the other, while no rocks would sit in the house in the fourth end. As battle continued the local rink would eventually be bested by Jones in a score of five to three after heated competition.
The open event would be won by the Williamson rink of Regina versus the Gustafson rink of the North West.
Despite points being taken in ends two to four by Gustafson, it was Williamson who earned two points in the first end and proceeded to increase his lead in ends five through three giving him the seven to four win after scoring three points in the seventh.
Following these 2:30 p.m. final matches on Sunday, March 16, came the 5:30 men's final match between local rink Stewart versus Haines of Regina.
Stewart and his team would keep Haines to the one point they scored in the third end, while Stewart would take one point in each the fifth and sixth end clenching victory with two rocks sitting in the house in the seventh end.
Full of excitement the curling rink celebrated as a local team had just earned their way to the International Championship this April.
Holland explained the bonspiel was a great success, and was happy to be able to spend time with local curling enthusiasts.
"It's been good," Holland said. "There's a lot of great young talent in Saskatchewan and they're doing well."
The bonspiel was able to be such a great success with the support of the local community as well as the efforts of the Optimists and the many sponsors of the weekend.
