Nationals are slated for Jan. 21-29 at the Esquimalt Curling Club and Archie Browning Sports Centre with the winners to represent sa国际传媒 at the World Junior Championship in PyeongChang, South Korea.
Mariah Coulombe鈥檚 Victoria Curling Centre rink, with third Taylor Reese-Hansen, second Jordan Koster and lead Kirsten Zucchet, is among the eight-team junior women鈥檚 field.
Among the favourites are Corryn Brown鈥檚 Kamloops foursome that includes Marika Van Osch of Nanaimo at third and also Sarah Daniels鈥� Delta Thistle rink that includes local Sydney Brilz at lead.
Brilz played with Coulombe last year when they finished fourth at provincials and two years ago when they placed third. Coulombe faces Daniels in the opening draw at 2 p.m. today and finals are slated for 11 a.m. on Sunday.
鈥淚t鈥檚 good to play one of the better teams first because it sets the pace for the rest of the week,鈥� said Coulombe. 鈥淚t might be a little weird playing [against Brilz]. We鈥檙e still friends off the ice. I wish her the best and she does the same for me 鈥� we鈥檒l stay friends either way.
鈥淚 think we鈥檙e ready to go. There are a few nerves just thinking about going, but as long as we鈥檙e confident it makes the nerves go away,鈥� said Coulombe, who is in her last year of junior eligibility and would love to be playing in Esquimalt. 鈥淭hat is the No. 1 dream that we have, all of us.鈥�
Kyle Habkirk鈥檚 junior men鈥檚 rink, with Duncan Silversides at third, second Ryan Cassidy and lead Alex Horvath, is also based out of the VCC and will be competing in New Westminster.
鈥淚 think we have a good shot at getting to playoffs and after that it鈥檚 just one game at a time,鈥� said Silversides, who was on Paul Henderson鈥檚 sa国际传媒 junior championship team in 2014, which defeated Habkirk (who played third for Cody Tanaka) in the provincial final that year. 鈥淔rom there [the playoffs], it鈥檚 just whoever wins the right game.鈥�
Jordan Kiss鈥檚 Royal City rink, which includes Derek Chandler of Victoria at lead, is among the favourites on the junior men鈥檚 side, along with clubmate Tyler Tardi鈥檚 foursome. Habkirk opens play this afternoon at 2 p.m. against Tardi before facing the Royal City鈥檚 Matthew McCrady at 7:30 p.m.
The eight-team event continues until Sunday鈥檚 3 p.m. final with both championship games being live-streamed.
Both the junior men and women feature the Page playoff system.
EXTRA ENDS: The organizing committee of the Canadian Junior Curling Championships (which will have the semifinals and final broadcast on TSN) could still use more volunteers and interested participants can register online at curling.ca/2017juniors/volunteer/.
