Local girls at junior curling championships

BY ELYSE AMEND

elyse.amend@transcontinental.ca

The two-time provincial junior women’s curling champions, Team Richard, are in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., representing Quebec in the Canadian Juniors this week. After loosing Sunday morning’s draw against Manitoba 9-4, they came back to edge Ontario 5-4 later that evening. On Monday, they clobbered Prince Edward Island 12-2, but fell to Nova Scotia 5-3. Tuesday’s scores for their games against Saskatchewan and Newfoundland/Labrador were not available at press time, but can be viewed at www.curling.ca.

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 is competing for a chance to represent Canada at the world junior championships in Sweden during the first week of March.

The team’s coach, Glenn Tester, said this is only the team’s second year together, and he hopes their hard work over the past 12 months will 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 PEI – all the others competing in Sault Ste. Marie are 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.

The Quebec junior girls are playing against the Northwest Territory and New Brunswick this afternoon. The finals, to be broadcast by the CBC, will be played Sunday afternoon. For more on the Canadian junior curling championships and to keep track of the Quebec junior girl’s team, visit www.curling.ca.