Earning a chance to compete in the winter games

Times Reporter

 

One lucky Strathmore curler and his team will have a chance to show other Alberta teams what they are made of at the Alberta Winter Games in February of 2012. 

Ben Budzey, from Strathmore, and his teammates Mark Taylor, Tyler Lautner and Spencer Higgs from Calgary, earned a spot in the games last weekend to represent the Calgary Zone. 

“It’s a pretty hard event to get into, lots of their peers have not and will not ever get to go to this, it’s a pretty big deal,” said coach Doug Higgs. 

“(You’ve) got to put in the time to get the experience, so it’s all paying off.”

Higgs said typically young curlers only have one legitimate chance to compete in the winter games because it is a 16-years-old and younger event. Because the older curlers usually have more experience they typically are the ones that have a better shot of making it. 

All of the boys except Budzey, who is 14, will be unable to compete in the next bi-annual event.

The Alberta Winter Games is the last chance for the boys to win gold for the province, as Budzey is the only one able to compete at the upcoming Canada Winter Games.

“Given the fact that they are coming from where they are, they are going to have a very good opportunity to do very well,” said Higgs.

All four of the boys said they began curling after family members introduced them to it. 

“I enjoyed it and I continued on,” said Lautner. 

“I want to get a banner, I want to win gold so we can have a banner.”

“For me it’s to see what other people our age have done and know how well we’ve done in the past and see that we can accomplish that…we know we can do it as well,” said Taylor. 

All four of the boys have either curled against each other, or occasionally with each other, though this is the first year they have been on a team together. This weekend they are in Red Deer for the junior Southern playdowns, and will have a chance to go to junior provincials.