The spring meeting of the OCA Zone 12 representatives was held this past Tuesday at the Westmount Golf and Country Club in Kitchener. Among the topics under discussion was the Zone 12 event calendar, and while some venues and dates remain open for various events, in Zone 12 things are now pretty much set for the upcoming season.
The dates below should be considered tentative until the final, compete OCA event calendar has been made available by the Ontario Curling Association. For an overview of proposed 2012-2013 dates at the provincial level, the OCA has a tentative schedule available online.
Elmira and District Curling Club events
Elmira will be hosting two OCA competitions in 2012-13. They are:
- Zone 12 Master’s men’s, November 19-21 (daytime only).
- Regional OCA Men’s, January 5-6 2013.
Note that the K-W Granite Club will host the Ontario Scotties Tournament of Hearts, the Ontario Women’s Curling Championship, from January 21-27.
Zone 12 bantam events
Zone 12 venues were finalized at Tuesday’s meeting, yielding the following schedule for OCA Bantam Boys and Bantam Girls:
- Zone 12 (boys and girls) – January 11-13, 2013, Ayr Curling Club.
- Regionals – January 19-20, venue is TBA but will be in Zone 9 (west of Toronto).
- Provincials – date is still TBA, will be either February 6-9 or February 27-March 2, RCN (Navy) Curling Club in Ottawa.
Bantam/junior mixed dates and venues were also finalized at the meeting, with date changes from the OCA’s initial schedule:
- Zone 12 bantam/junior mixed: March 1-3 at Galt Curling Club
- Regionals: March 9-10, Ayr Curling Club
- Provincials: March 27-30, Galt Curling Club (to be confirmed).
Entry dates for these competitions have yet to be published.
Ryan Paulley gets ready to throw during the 2012 TimBits Championships in Parry Sound. Photo courtesy of Carmen Everest Wahl.
- Several coaches were able to upgrade their coaching credentials this season. Glenn Paulley is now Level 3 trained and is working towards his Level 3 certification. Geoff Martin completed the Club Coach course from the CCA over the winter. Marc Bernard became Competition Coach trained in the fall, and achieved his Competition Coach certification this spring.
- The Laurier Golden Hawks varsity women’s rink of skip Laura Crocker, 3rd Sarah Wilkes, 2nd Jen Gates, and lead Pam Feldkamp paid a visit to Elmira in early December and ran an instructional clinic that included video analysis and several new drills not previously seen by either our Little Rock or bantam teams. We were delighted to host these talented women as they took the time away from their busy schedules, including practicing for the Karuizawa International Championships that were held in January in Nagano, Japan, in which the Laurier women won the gold medal.
- Elmira hosted a very successful Junior Bonspiel on February 11 with participating teams from Elmira, Westmount, K-W Granite, Brantford, Brampton, Markdale, and Goderich. 11-year-old Tony Domzella skipped his Elmira rink to the championship – Elmira’s first ever, to my knowledge – in the Little Rock event, while Sam Mooibroek of Westmount skipped his rink to first place in the bantam event. Each winning rink had their names placed on new trophies procured for the event, dedicated to Elmira life members Norm Clement and Ted Starling. During the bonspiel we also held a fundraiser for the Shantz family of Elmira with the unexpected passing of Brad Shantz in January.
- Little Rock teams participated in bonspiels at North Halton, Milton, Brampton, Elmira, and Westmount with good success: a second place finish at both North Halton and Milton, and first and second place at Elmira.
- Elmira hosted our first Bantam Interclub event in November, providing an opportunity for Elmira bantam rinks to play against other bantam teams from Orangeville, Fergus, Guelph, Elora, Shelburne, and Alliston. In addition to Interclub, bantam teams participated in bonspiels in North Halton, K-W Granite and Brampton, and Elmira sent two teams to the 2012 TimBits Elementary School Championships in Parry Sound this past weekend (April 12-15).
- An unprecedented number of Elmira Junior curlers earned OCA Skill Awards this year, with many of the bantams earning their Bronze awards and several novice Little Rockers earning their Red awards.
In the fall, the Junior program will get underway in mid-October with our usual Open House where new curlers can try things out for two weeks without cost or obligation. However, before Elmira’s ice is ready there will be opportunities for bantam curlers to hit the ice in September as a number of bantam events are planned to take place at other clubs in the Region and the surrounding area. Curlers should monitor Throwing Stones throughout the summer for news about these upcoming events. In the meantime, have an enjoyable (and active!) summer and we’ll see you in the fall!
Program by .
The final event of the Grand Slam of Curling, the Capital One Players’ Championship, will be broadcast on Global TV. The lineup of teams includes 2012 Canadian champions Glenn Howard and Heather Nedohin along with other well-known rinks such as Kevin Martin, Jeff Stoughton and Mike McEwen on the men’s side, and Chelsea Carey, Eve Muirhead, and Jennifer Jones on the women’s side. Broadcast times are scheduled for 12 noon ET each day, but check your TV Guide so you don’t miss any action.
Curling on TV by .
For Pools “M” and “N”, the final draw of round-robin play in the 2012 TimBits Provincial Championships shifted to the Parry Sound Curling Club and both Elmira teams were in action. Here’s the recap of draw five:
St. Teresa of Avila, Elmira
Coach Marc Bernard rotated out Luke DeCorte for this final game, so the Elmira foursome for this match against North Dundas District PS of Chesterville consisted of skip Veronica Bernard, third Natalie Bean, second Ryan Bauman and lead Morgan Glofcheskie. The ice at the Parry Sound club was not nearly as fast as the fresh ice at the Bobby Orr Community Center and the Elmira foursome found draw weight early, taking a nice 3 in the first end of play and following that with a steal of another 3 to lead 6-0 after two ends.
| Team | LSFE | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | Final |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| North Dundas District PS | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | X | 2 | |
| St. Teresa | * | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | X | 9 |
The next two ends featured a fair number of rocks in play. In the fourth end North Dundas lied one buried in the four-foot and Elmira skip Veronica Bernard was unable to tap it back with either of her last two stones to give up another steal of one, for a 6-2 score after four ends. In five, however, Bernard was able to split the rings yet keep the four-foot open for a clutch draw to the four-foot for her third point, and the game was called after 5 ends with a final score of 9-2. The St. Teresa rink completed round-robin play with a 1-3 record in Pool “N”.
MacGregor Senior Public School, Waterloo
The MacGregor boys were eager to avenge the loss of their morning’s game to Shelburne that knocked them out of the playoffs, and in the afternoon draw faced a very young rink from Victory Public School in Parry Sound. This game was never in doubt and the Victory PS foursome conceded after five ends with the final score 14-1.
| Team | LSFE | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | Final |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Victory PS | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | X | 1 | |
| MacGregor PS | * | 3 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 0 | X | 14 |
The win gives the MacGregor boys a record of 3-1 in pool play, just out of the playoffs with Courtney Holmes’ Hyland Heights rink from Shelburne advancing from Pool “M” with a sparkling 4-0 record.
Despite the fact that neither Elmira rink could advance to the triple-knockout playoff rounds, both teams gained some significant experience in playing in a large event and, in particular, playing on arena ice for the first time.
We would like to thank Ray Pavlove and his organizing committee in Parry Sound for hosting a superb event – all the kids had a blast. The 2013 TimBits Provincials will be held in Ganonaque, east of Kingston, in April 2013.
Bonspiels by .
Opening ceremonies at the 2012 TimBits Championships. Photograph courtesy of Jennifer Bernard.
In draw four at the 2012 TimBits Provincial Curling Championships both Elmira rinks saw play with their third game in their respective pools, with both teams struggling against talented sides. Here’s the recap:
St. Teresa of Avila, Elmira
The third game had St. Teresa, skipped again by Veronica Bernard with Morgan Glofcheskie at lead, Natalie Bean at second, Luke DeCorte at third, and Ryan Bauman as the alternate, facing a tough hometown side from McDougall Public School from Parry Sound.
| Team | LSFE | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | Final |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| McDougall PS | * | 0 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 11 |
| St. Teresa | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
The first end saw lots of rocks in play with the superb ice conditions at the Bobby Orr Community Center with St. Teresa at one point lying four, and stealing two when McDougall skip Matt Mayede’s final stone rolled out of play. The next two ends were close with McDougall tying the score at 2-2 after three with a steal of a single point. After that, the Elmira foursome struggled to find draw weight, giving up a huge steal of four in the 4th end of play. McDougall continued with some excellent shot-making in the final two ends to make the final 11-2, handing St. Teresa their third straight loss.
MacGregor Senior Public School, Waterloo
While St. Teresa were struggling on sheet 7 at the Bobby Orr Community Center, things weren’t any better on sheet 10 as the MacGregor PS foursome of lead Oskar von Wahl, second Ryan Paulley, skip Andrew Paulley (throwing third stones) and fourth Jed Currie fell 11-0 to a talented and undefeated side from Hyland Heights Elementary School skipped by Courtney Holmes and coached by Carey Holmes out of the Shelburne Curling Club in Shelburne.
| Team | LSFE | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | Final |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hyland Heights | 1 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 11 | |
| MacGregor PS | * | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
In this game the Waterloo rink suffered their worst defeat of the season, struggling with both ice-reading and draw weight and the game was essentially over after the third end of play with the rink from Shelburne up 6-0 with three consecutive steals. The win guarantees Shelburne first place in pool “M” and knocks MacGregor out of playoff contention. With the loss, the Elmira foursome hopes to rebound this afternoon and improve their current 2-1 record when they play Victory PS from Parry Sound in the last round-robin draw of the tournament.
Bonspiels by .
One thing appreciated by all of the coaches at the 2012 TimBits Provincial Curling Championships being held in Parry Sound this weekend is the quality of the post-game snacks offered to all the teams. Snacks have included fresh fruit, particularly bananas, apples, and oranges, along with granola bars and, for those with a sweet tooth, some homemade chocolate chip cookies.
A recent article in the Coaching Nutrition column of the Coaches Association of Canada website lists some excellent snack alternatives for kids that includes those types of healthy snacks, particularly fruit and whole grains. The snacks are appropriate for all ages and all types of activities, not just curling – keep that list handy this summer when your child is playing soccer, lacrosse, or when on a hike.
Training and fitness by .
In the third draw of Pool “N” of the 2012 Ontario TimBits Provincial Championships the St. Teresa of Avila rink out of Elmira could not, unfortunately, give up the hammer as they struggled with the ice at the Bobby Orr Community Center in Parry Sound and fell 7-1 to St. Michael’s Elementary School of Cambridge.
| Team | LSFE | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | Final |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| St. Michael’s | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 7 | |
| St. Teresa | * | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
With alternate Morgan Glofcheskie substituting for Natalie Bean, skip Veronica Bernard and her rink struggled with finding draw weight through the first five ends on the very keen Bobby Orr surface, much improved on this day compared to the near-catastrophic conditions faced by all teams Thursday afternoon.
With the loss St. Teresa falls to 0-2 in pool play with 2 games remaining, at 9:45am and 3:00 pm tomorrow.
Bonspiels by .
Round-robin play is well underway at the 2012 Ontario TimBits Provincial Championships being held in Parry Sound. Here is a recap of the action for the two Elmira & District Curling Club rinks that are entered in this year’s championships, begin played at the Parry Sound Curling Club and the Bobby Orr Community Centre.
MacGregor Public School, Waterloo
The MacGregor PS foursome, consisting of lead Oskar von Wahl, second Ryan Paulley, vice Jed Currie (throwing skip stones) and skip Andrew Paulley (throwing 3rd stones) got off to a great start in Pool “M” play in their first game Thursday at the Bobby Orr Community Centre in Parry Sound with a tight 6-4 victory over Jessica Humphries’ rink from Langton Public School in Fenelon Falls.
| Team | LSFE | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | Final |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MacGregor PS | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 6 | |
| Langton PS | * | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 4 |
Ice was superb at the Bobby Orr Community Center and the two teams played a tight, defensive game through the first four ends of play, with the MacGregor rink stealing a single in the first end and then trading singles for the next three. The fifth end, however, saw a massive 4 as the MacGregor team was able to lie three at opposite sides of the 12-foot, and left Langton’s Humphries a difficult double-and-roll to try to prevent a big score; but her last stone over-curled, missing everything and Jed Currie had to draw 8-foot for the fourth point. In the final end, the MacGregor team played it defensively and ran the Langton team out of rocks, leaving Langton’s Humphries with a last-rock draw for two to salvage a 6-4 final score.
In their second game, ice conditions at the Bobby Orr Community Centre played a huge role as during the afternoon the ice went from being excellent to extremely heavy with many rinks struggling to throw enough weight for draws, let alone takeouts. Game two had the MacGregor foursome face St. Joseph Catholic School from Gananoque.
| Team | LSFE | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | Final |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| St. Joseph Catholic | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 5 | |
| MacGregor PS | * | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 6 |
Play in this game was dominated by the ice conditions where it was difficult to make take-outs, resulting in both teams scoring 3 with hammer and three ends being stolen. Down one coming home in the sixth with hammer, a last-rock miss from the the St. Joseph skip gave Jed Currie the opportunity to draw the eight-foot for two and the win and the MacGregor foursome made no mistake, despite the challenge of seeing the ice conditions change considerably beginning in the fifth end.
So in Pool “M” MacGregor PS sits undefeated at 2-0, currently tied for first place in their pool with Hyland Heights Elementary from Shelburne and those two undefeated rinks face each other in the 9:45am draw Saturday. Pool play will be completed Saturday afternoon with the 16 pool winners starting the triple-knockout playoff round Saturday night.
St. Teresa of Avila, Elmira
St. Teresa faced those same very tough ice conditions in their first game Thursday afternoon in Pool “N”. Skipped by Veronica Bernard (throwing 3rd stones) with Natalie Bean at lead, Ryan Bauman at second, Luke DeCorte at 3rd (throwing fourth stones) and alternate Morgan Glofcheskie, the Elmira foursome faced off against a tough opponent from Arran Tara Elementary in Tara.
| Team | LSFE | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | Final |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| St. Teresa | * | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Arran Tara | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 8 |
Both the weight and the swing were problematic for the St. Teresa foursome as they gave up consecutive steals of 2 in the first two ends. In the third, two nice draws by second Ryan Bauman to lie two setup a three-spot and Elmira was back in the game 4-3 after 3 ends. A pair of fortunate misses by Arran Tara in 4 gave them another two for a 6-3 lead with two ends to play. Close misses after that by fourth Luke DeCorte resulted in, again, successive steals for Arran Tara and the final score was 8-3, again the ice really dictating the flow of play.
St. Teresa is on the ice again this afternoon for their second game, prior to the opening ceremonies at 5pm with all 80 teams in attendance.
Bonspiels by .
Congratulations to Elmira coach Marc Bernard for earning his Competition Coach (formerly Level 2) certification from the Ontario Curling Association. Marc successfully completed his on-ice evaluation in late March with Laurier Golden Hawks coach and High Performance Centre Director Gary Crossley as his evaluator.
Congratulations Marc!
Coaching by .
The annual Elmira Junior bonspiel was held on February 11, 2012 and hosted 64 Little Rock and Bantam curlers from the Brampton, Brantford, Markdale, Westmount, K-W Granite, Maitland, and Elmira curling clubs. This year’s bonspiel featured new permanent trophies for the winners of both events, and are named in honour of two Elmira life members: Mr. Norm Clement, and Mr. Ted Starling.
Little Rock event
Elmira’s Tony Domzella skipped a rink consisting of third Olivia Ronson, second Michael Buettel, and lead Caroline Bulgarelli (on load from Brampton) to victory in the Little Rock event.
Norm Clement poses with Tony Domzella and his winning Elmira rink
In Pool A, the two Elmira rinks skipped by Kyle Henry and Nathan Wells drew an opening-round match, which Kyle won 6-3 to proceed to the A Pool final against the Kevin Simone foursome from K-W Granite, who defeated Mikayla Ottogalli of Brampton 10-0 in their first game. In the A Pool final, Kyle Henry’s rink of Linden Jorna, Connor Stone and Fiona Bernard prevailed over Simone’s foursome of Simone, Meaghan Mallett, Derrick Milroy, and Aidan Drekic from Granite 7-3. The A Pool consolation featured Wells and his rink from Elmira against the Ottogalli foursome from Brampton, and Nathan and his rink of Nolan Coe, Jakob Ruprecht and Sam Domzella prevailed over the Brampton rink in a close one, 5-4, with Nathan scoring 3 with hammer in the sixth end for the win.
In the opening matches of Pool B, Tony Domzella’s foursome defeated Nick Prychitko’s rink from Brampton 6-2, while Ryan Watkinson of K-W Granite defeated Szczur of Brantford – who were unfortunately only able to field 3 players – 6-3, a fine effort by the Szczur threesome under the circumstances. Hence Domzella from Elmira squared off against Watkinson from K-W Granite in the B Pool final, with Domzella’s foursome prevailing 5-3. That final game exhibited some excellent shot making from both teams; perhaps the most memorable was a hit for two through a port by Tony Domzella on his last stone in the first end.
With the Henry foursome winning both their games in the A Pool, and the Domzella rink prevailing in the two games in Pool B, the bonspiel winner, decided by points as usual, was determined to be Tony’s rink who edged the Kyle foursome by 6 1/2 points to win the Norm Clement trophy. At the trophy presentation, we were thrilled to welcome Mr. Clement who made the presentation personally. Mr. Clement, a life member of the Elmira and District Curling Club, has been an Elmira member for more than half a century and was instrumental in the construction of the club building in 1966.
Bantam event
In the Bantam event, Sam Mooibroek skipped his Westmount Golf and Country Club rink, consisting of Eric Wardell, Adam Aubin, and Dylan Reany to victory in Pool B.
Elmira life member Ted Starling poses with Sam Mooibroek and his winning bantam rink from Westmount
The first games in Pool A featured Jennie Hooker vs. Jenny Colton, both from Markdale, playing to an 8-end draw, tied 5-5. Hooker prevailed in the subsequent draw-to-the-button to determine her opponent in game 2. In the other Pool A match, Colin White of K-W Granite dumped Ryan Hill of Maitland (Goderich) 11-6. In Pool B, on sheet 3 the Mooibroek foursome dominated the Schmidt side from Brantford 12-1 in six ends. On sheet 4, Fraser from Markdale lost to Johnston of Markdale in a close one, 7-5.
The A Pool final featured the Hooker foursome from Markdale against Colin White from K-W Granite, and Colin and his rink had a fairly easy time, 7-2 in six ends. The A pool consolation was similarly lopsided, with Jenny Colton from Markdale defeating Hill from Maitland 8-3. In Pool B, the Schmidt side from Brantford adjusted their lineup and played a much better game, defeating Fraser from Markdale in a close one 6-5. In the B Pool final, Sam Mooibroek and his foursome defeated a no-give-up Johnston side from Markdale 11-6. On points, the Mooibroek rink from Westmount edged out the Colin White foursome from K-W Granite by a slim margin of 4 points, earning their names on the Ted Starling trophy.
We were delighted that Mr. Starling could join us at the club for the trophy presentation. Mr. Starling, another of the few life members at the Elmira and District Curling Club, is celebrating his fortieth year as a member, having joined the club in 1972.
Congratulations to all the curlers for a great day of play. My thanks to Reg Domaratzki for leading the kitchen volunteers, Dianne Crossley for organizing the food, Jennifer and Veronica Bernard and Allison Olmsted for helping with the party games for the kids over the lunch-time break, my colleague Dove Champagne for the loan of the Angry Birds slingshot, and Paul Miller for managing the ice during the day. As well, my thanks to Shawn Keba of Brampton for his efforts in filling the Little Rock draw to 8 teams.
Bonspiels Club events by .