A group of junior men and women are on call in the spare pool, should a need for an alternate arise for any of the provincial or territorial teams competing at Archie Browning Sports Centre and the Esquimalt Curling Club, starting Saturday.
Among them is Duncan Silversides, who played third for Paul Henderson鈥檚 team that represented the Victoria Curling Centre at nationals in 2015, the last time (and sixth straight year) a Victoria rink attended Canadians. He was also third on Kyle Habkirk鈥檚 team that finished as a runner-up at the sa国际传媒 Juniors.
鈥淚 emailed my old coach [Todd Troyer], who is helping organize the spare pool, and told him I鈥檇 be interested,鈥� said Silversides. 鈥淪hould something occur, one of the guys in the pool would be called in to play. I think it happened once for the guys when I was there and a couple of times for the girls.鈥�
Locals Alex Horvath, Ryan Cassidy, Zane Bartlett and Derek Chandler are also expected to be on the men鈥檚 spares list, and Mariah Coulombe and Sydney Brilz are both ready to go in the women鈥檚 group. Jordan Koster is expected to join the latter group. Brilz played lead on Sarah Daniels鈥� team from the Mainland and all her teammates are also expected to be on the list, including Megan Daniels and Sarah Loken.
鈥淛ust getting out would be great, with the experience of playing out on that ice,鈥� said Silversides, who also recently qualified his Victoria Curling Centre rink of lead Dennis Williams, Cassidy at second and Bartlett at third for the provincial under-18 championship, set for March 16-19 in Nanaimo.
In Nanaimo (where he won the Island playdowns last weekend), Silversides will compete against the likes of provincial junior (under-21) champion Tyler Tardi, who has locals Chandler and Scott Gray as part of his team at the Canadian Juniors this week.
Sampson MacNeil鈥檚 rink from the Juan de Fuca club (with Trevor Ell at third, Sid Redding-Mason at second and Logan Anker) also competed at the Island U-18s, along with the Brier Pilon rink of Comox and Cody Chamberlin of Campbell River.
On the girls鈥� under-18 side, Sophie Brissette of Juan de Fuca (with third Kayla Wilson, second Sasha Wilson and lead Loganne Bell) and Comox鈥檚 Gracelyn Richards (with third Chanelle Meeres, second Keelie Duncan and lead Bryn Woloshyn) qualified for Nanaimo.
EXTRA ENDS: Tickets for the Canadian juniors can be purchased at selectyourseats.com or at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre or by calling 250-220-7777.
