Our Junior Curling season is well underway at Elmira, with thirteen Little Rockers and twenty U15, U18 and U19 athletes. Our next practice will be Sunday, January 7 after the Christmas break.
Our Little Rockers have been practicing hard since the end of October. On Saturday, December 16, Mackenna Riel, Emma and Lauren Penston, and Hannah Wilk participated in their first bonspiel of the season in Milton and earned a third-place finish. Congratulations girls! We have a number of Little Rock events coming up after the New Year, with exhibition games planned with Little Rockers from the Ayr Curling Club and Acton Curling Clubs, and the Westmount Rob Shepherd bonspiel in early March.
For the older athletes, our first Interclub of the season was held at the Kitchener-Waterloo Granite Club on November 25, and three more Interclub days are planned this season with our next Interclub event scheduled for Saturday, January 13 in Elora.
Two long-time Elmira Juniors, and their competitive teams, are enjoying significant success this season. Elmira’s Veronica Bernard, who skips her U18 competitive team consisting of third Claire Randell, second Sarah Wallace, lead Kyrsten Elson, and coach Marc Bernard, recently won the Stu Sells U18 Tankard Championship at Toronto’s Weston Golf and Country Club, one of the major events on the Ontario U18 OJCT Curling Tour. With Veronica’s other successful events this season, Team Bernard is now ranked #1 on the Ontario Junior Curling Tour for U18 teams. Team Bernard will represent Elmira in U18 OCA playdowns in March. In addition, Veronica is also playing third for Team Rachel Steele, who recently earned a berth to the Ontario Winter Games U17 competition. We wish her and her team every success through the season. Below is Team Bernard accepting their championship trophies for the Stu Sells U18 Tankard from event sponsor Stu Sankey.
The other Elmira junior enjoying good success this season is Emma McKenzie. Emma, who plays third for Mackenzie Kiemele’s rink out of the Toronto Cricket club, has twice finished runner-up at major U21 events this season, including the U21 Stu Sells Junior Tankard in September. In addition, Emma and Mackenzie, along with teammates Audrey Wallbank and Jessica Filipcic, with coach Glenn Paulley, earned a berth to the Ontario U21 Women’s Provincial Championship after winning the A-side final in the U21 Challenge Round held in St. Catharines on November 25. The U21 Junior Provincial Championships will be held at the Annandale Golf and Country in Ajax from December 27- 30, with the winning rink going on to the New Holland Junior Nationals in Shawinigan, PQ in January.
