Local girls off to junior curling championships

Save for any weather-related flight cancellations this morning, the two-time provincial junior women’s curling champions, Team Richard, are heading to Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario where they will represent Quebec in the Canadian championships next week.

Based out of the Lachine Curling Club and made up of Kirklander Kristen Richard (skip), Dollard des Ormeaux resident Alanna Routledge (third), Dorval resident Brittany O’Rourke (second), and Sasha Beauchamp (lead) of Greenfield Park, the team will be competing for a chance to represent Canada at the world junior championships in Sweden during the first week of March. “We just want to get on the plane and get out there,” said the team’s coach, Glenn Tester in a phone interview on Wednesday. This is only the team’s second year together, and Tester said their hard work over the past 12 months should result in huge improvements over their performance at the national championships in Ste. Catherines last year, where they lost 10 of their 12 games. “It was such a new thing for us – a national event – we sort of got caught up in all the festivities,” he said. “You’re sort of all over the place in the first few days. And then, all of a sudden, you’re halfway into it and you’re loosing.”

Except for themselves and two other teams – New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island – all the others competing in Sault Ste. Marie will be at a national championship for the first time. “Honestly, we’re hoping to get a good jump that way, too,” Tester said. Being on the ice at least four times a week can’t hurt either. “This year, we’ve changed around everything we’ve done. We’ve worked 20 times harder and have been very strict on how many games and practices we have per week.”

According to the team’s second, 19-year-old Brittany O’Rourke, more support from their peers this year is also giving them a mental boost. “Last year I think a lot of people thought it was a fluke that we won, and I guess we didn’t feel we had the support from home. But this year we feel like we have a lot of people behind us, like they’re really rooting for us,” she said.

With a game against Manitoba scheduled for Sunday morning, the championship kick-off won’t be easy. “The west, they always have really great teams. All of our first couple of games are teams from the west, so we’re going to have to be on out toes for that,” O’Rourke said. “Our whole week is going to be dictated in the first few days,” Tester agreed. “But I’m confident that we’ve improved to be on the same level as everybody else. And now it’s just a matter of who’s going to be stronger, emotionally and mentally.”

For more on the Canadian junior curling championships and to keep track of the Quebec junior girl’s team, visit www.curling.ca.