Confederation College Thunderhawks Curling Head for Nationals

Written by Confederation College on 16 March 2013

Confederation’s curling teams are in final preparation before they head out to the Canadian Colleges Athletic Association National Curling Championships in Edmonton, AB March 20 – 23, 2013. The Championships are hosted by NAIT (Northern Alberta Institute of Technology) at the Avonair Curling Club.

Both the men’s and women’s Thunderhawks curling teams returned from the Ontario Colleges Athletic Association Provincial Curling Championships with silver medals and a qualification to represent Ontario at the National event.

The Thunderhawks men’s team, coached by Paul Carr, swept round robin play with a 6-2 record advancing them into the gold medal match. Skip, Kurtis Bryd was named to the Championship All-Stars with the distinction of Men’s First Team All-Star Skip. Vice/Third, Phil Tribe earned the Men’s Second Team All-Star Vice spot. The front end was well represented by Brody McIntyre and Kyle Toset.

The Thunderhawks women’s squad, coached by Walter Risi, also came out on top of their division after robin play with a 3-1 record, advancing them to gold medal contention. The championship game saw our Thunderhawks force an extra end, but not having the hammer put them at a slight disadvantage, settling for the silver. Skip, Megan St. Amand led the squad, with Vice/Third Grace Esquega named to the Women’s Second Team All Star team. Second Kathleen Murray and Lead Megan Cain represented the front end on the women’s Thunderhawks team.

Men’s team Coach Paul Carr just returned with the gold from the Masters Curling Championships in New Liskeard. The Carr rink will be representing Northern Ontario at the 2013 Canadian Master Curling Championships April 8 – 14 hosted by Port Arthur Curling Club.

Confederation holds the title for the most National championships won from Ontario with an impressive 4 titles in a 5 year span. The Thunderhawks also boast 24 gold medal titles at the OCAA level.

“This has been a great experience” said Coach Walter Risi. “We have been training hard and we are excited and ready to go to the Nationals”.

Confederation College Thunderhawks men’s & women’s teams are training daily at the Port Arthur Curling Club or their hometown club. Their last full team practice will be Monday, March 18^th 5:30 pm at the Port Arthur Curling Club.