Bears skip aims to cap off ‘incredible year’ with title
Three-time provincial junior champion leads rink looking for U Sports gold
It’s been a dream season for Karsten Sturmay, and he has no intentions of letting it end too soon.
The accolades have come fast and furious this year for the University of Alberta Golden Bears skip.
He won his third straight provincial junior title, teamed up with sister Selena to win a mixed doubles provincial title, and in his first men’s provincials in February, went on a Cinderella run to the final before losing to defending provincial men’s champion Brendan Bottcher.
Now, in his first season skipping the Golden Bears rink at the 2018 U Sports national championship, he’s trying to win his first national championship.
Sturmay and his rink consisting of third Tristan Steinke, second Jason Ginter and lead Brett Winfield are one of eight teams competing for the national title at the Leduc Recreation Centre beginning Saturday and running through Wednesday.
“We’ve had an incredible year both at the U-21 level and in men’s competition. We’ve experienced a ton of success, and we’ve built up a lot of momentum this year and we want to keep it going,” Sturmay said.
Sturmay is in his third season with the Golden Bears, the two previous years he was third to Thomas Scoffin at the national championship, in which they placed second both times.
He’s enjoyed a lot of success with this lineup. Steinke and Ginter are in their final year with the Golden Bears and Sturmay wants nothing more than to give them a national title on their way out.
“This will be our last kick at it to win this championship together as a team and it would be pretty special,” said Sturmay.
There’s even more on the line this year for the gold-medal winners. They will represent Canada at the 2019 Winter Universiade in Krasnoyarsk, Russia.
“It would be a dream come true to represent my country,” said Sturmay, who has played more than 100 games in 12 events this season.
It’s a deep field on the men’s side, but Sturmay’s rink is one of the most experienced. Not only that, Sturmay grew up in Leduc and will have all his friends and family in the stands cheering him on.
“It’s great to have had that experience in big games before and you know how to mentally prepare for them,” said Sturmay. “It’s a very talented field and we are definitely going to have to be at our best if we want to have success this week.”
Sturmay will look to follow in the footsteps of former Golden Bears and Pandas skips who won a national championship. Kelsey Rocque won in 2015 and Bottcher took home the title in 2012.
“I’m excited for the challenge,” Sturmay said. “We have high expectations with our program to live up to and we have a great history and it’s a such a privilege to be a part of it.”
The national championship will be a family affair for Sturmay. His sister Selena plays second on Alberta’s women’s team skipped by Kristen Streifel. The siblings will then compete in the 2018 Canadian mixed doubles championship later in the week.
“It’s extremely special to share this experience with my sister,” Sturmay said. “We don’t get many chances to curl with each other, but we were able to win a provincial mixed doubles championship together and now we get to compete for a mixed doubles national championship in our hometown. That’s something pretty incredible.”