SHS curlers head to provincials

By Brady Grove, Times Reporter

The Strathmore High School (SHS) curling program is sending two of its teams to test their mettle at provincials in St. Paul, March 7-9.
The mixed and girls’ teams both lost in their respective gold medal games at the south central zones in Cochrane on Feb. 7-8, but because of their provincial wins last year, they were awarded wild card spots and will get another chance at curling glory.
“Even though we didn’t win the gold medal(s) I think everybody has pretty high expectations,” said SHS curling program coach and teacher Brad Steele.
The mixed team was coming off a 2018 provincial championship. This year, the club finished first in the round robin and swept aside the competition until they ran into Chestermere. According to Steele, it’s still a big accomplishment to capture silver and the mixed team will get a chance at redemption at provincials especially because they beat Chestermere in the round robin which, in turn, got their revenge against the SHS team.
There are two returning players from provincials last year who are still on the team – skip Jonathon Damen and third Micayla Kooistra. They will be joined by second Coby Thiessen, co-lead Jaden Klem and co-lead Kennedy Hampson.
“We’ve got a very strong (mixed) team and a very good chance of repeating,” said Steele.
Meanwhile, the girls’ team has earned a spot at provincials because of strong performances last season at the tournament. Last year’s mixed lead Cheldynn Molnar moved on to skip this year’s girls’ team to their silver medal at zones. The girls team was perfect through the round robin but lost a close match for the gold. The girls’ team is led by skip Cheldynn, who is joined by her younger sister, third Sydnie Molnar with second Jayla Robertson and lead Zoe Berthelot completing the team’s roster.
“They came up against a very experienced skip, just like ours, but they played a very good curling game,” said Steele. “On another day I think we could have won, but it was just a very good battle between two teams.”
The boys’ team, made up of relatively new curlers and three international students, also competed at the zones tournament in early February. According to Steele, they improved with every game, eventually giving the team that won the silver medal a run for their money. They scored two three-enders in their final game but it wasn’t enough to get the club into a playoff spot. Skip Ethan Chow led the team into battle along with third Martin Cheung, second Kyle Jackson and lead Leon Lobo.
“It was great to see them coming out and trying the game,” said Steele who has been coaching curling for about 20 years. “Introducing the game to new players is always fun.”
Steele stressed that while SHS does provide instruction and coaching to its players, most of their skills and strategies are developed by their years of play with the Strathmore and District Curling Club (SDCC) junior program.
“The mixed and girls’ teams are quite experienced curlers. We get those players and they’re coming to us as very good curlers,” said Steele. “They’ve learned all their expertise from the SDCC and that’s why they are qualifying for provincials.”