Hat curlers win provincial silver
Medicine Hat’s Team Miller curling rink battled the odds all season and finished their provincial run with a silver medal.
The local curling team of lead Lyndon Sherwick, second Drinnan Mack, third Colby Sherwick and skip Ryker Miller finished second place at the Curling Alberta U15 provincial championship at Lacombe, falling to Team Whitbread of Lacombe 5-3 in the final match.
Coach Terry DeValter says they had their difficulties in moment but was proud of how they handled themselves en route to the finals.
“We had our little struggles but a large part of that will come because we haven’t had a curling club for two years,” DeValter said. “So there is a little bit of inconsistency just because we’re not able to play all the time, but for the most part, the boys played well and were very deserving of being in the final where they were.”
Team Miller has been without a permanent home, as all Medicine Hat curlers have been, for two seasons now due to the Medicine Hat Curling Club’s building not being operational. The U15 team has curled in Brooks and Irvine, taking whatever ice time they can get to develop their skills. DeValter says they have been patient and handled the difficulties well.
“We go to Brooks on Tuesday night to play men’s league, the Brooks ice is very good and it’s closer to what the boys will play on competitively,” DeValter said. “It was good for us to go to Brooks on Tuesdays. We tried to practise if we could, once a week in Brooks, it meant a lot of miles, but really beneficial for the boys in the long run.”
Team Miller was one of 20 groups competing at the provincial tournament. They swept their pool play 4-0, outscoring their opponents 33-7, including back-to-back 9-0 shutout wins.
They earned their spot in the finals with a 6-5 win over Team Guglielmin from Calgary.
Their season isn’t over as they are set to compete in the Mark Kennedy Junior Classic held in Edmonton on March 21-24. They won the tournament last year and would cap off a strong season if they could repeat.
Looking back on the season as a whole, DeValter says it was a positive campaign as they integrated a new curler and the boys came together as a group.
“They’ve become more complete as a team, I think it was terrific,” DeValter said. “We had set our sights on trying to do well at the provincials and that’s exactly what we’ve done. They played well in Brooks men’s league, they finished in the top half of that and it’s not done yet. In Irvine as well, they’ve won some good games. They’ve had a pretty solid year when you consider all the factors and the fact that they didn’t have a home.”
With more ice time available throughout the year, hopefully at Medicine Hat’s rink, DeValter says the possibilities are endless for the group of four.
“As long as they remain positive and continue to work hard, particularly with us, hopefully in the fall, we’re going to have our rink revived, so I think they can go as far as they want,” DeValter said.