SYDNEY: The 2019 Scotties Tournament of Hearts was an opportunity for the nation’s top female curling teams to decide who would represent Canada at the 2019 World Women’s Curling Championship in Denmark. It was also an opportunity for two local curlers to visit with some of the world’s best athletes.
“It was great to see all the teams play and be a part of that,” said Kate Steele, who visited the event along with Sarah Organ. The two girls are members of the junior team playing out of the Strait Area Community Curling Club (SACCC).
Organ goes to Tamarac Education Centre when not tossing shot rocks, and Steele is a SAERC student who competes with the high school team.
The girls were able to attend the event as a part of the Future Stars program. The program provides young curlers (aged 10 to 16) the opportunity to experience high-level competitive curling and meet with the top provincial and territorial teams in the sport.
Future stars were given commemorative jackets, event pins, photos, and most importantly, a bit of time with one of the competing teams. With that, the future stars were able to observe a team practice and take part in a pre-game ceremony.
Organ shadowed Team Quebec (Gabrielle Lavoie), and Steele visited with Team Canada (Jennifer Jones).
“The girls would go out with them when the teams were practicing,” said Ronnie Organ, Sarah’s dad and coach of the SACCC junior team. “They’d meet with the girls and talk with them.
The curlers were unbelievable. They gave an awful lot of time to the kids.
“The Quebec team was quite young, and they kind of adopted my daughter,” Organ said with a laugh. “She ended up sitting with the team and watching some of the other games.”
Having an opportunity to be up close and personal with some of the world’s best curlers was something to be appreciated, Sarah said.
“I tried to watch all of Quebec’s games, and it was really cool,” she said. “They were really sweet. They let me sit with them after their games, and they were really nice to talk to.”
“It was really cool to sit in the players’ box and get to watch them really close. It was also great to walk out with them and have the announcer say your name.”
Steele was also very happy to hang out with some of the women headlining the major event.
“I got to sit in the players’ box and watch them play,” she said. “They gave us a lot of their time. It was awesome; it was really so exciting. It was nice to see women out competing at that level.
“They were our age when they started, and it makes me think maybe one day we can be there,” she added. “They were just like us.”
Both Coach Organ and Jesslyn Steele, Kate’s mom, said having high-level curlers pay attention to youth is a very good way to ensure curling rinks remain popular throughout Canada.
“It was a great opportunity for them, and it makes them want to keep curling,” Jesslyn said.
Ronnie said any young people looking to get into the sport are welcome to pop over to the SACCC, and the invitation is also extended to the not-so-young.