Experience tends to go a long way at a Canadian Junior Men鈥檚 and Women鈥檚 Curling Championship.
For that reason alone, teams skipped by Northern Ontario鈥檚 Tanner Horgan and Nova Scotia鈥檚 Kristin Clarke are among the favourites as the 2017 championships begin Saturday at Archie Browning Sports Centre and Esquimalt Curling Club.
Horgan鈥檚 team 鈥� of third Jacob Horgan, second Nicholas Bissonnette and lead Maxime Blais 鈥� remains intact after last year鈥檚 silver-medal finish to Manitoba鈥檚 Matt Dunstone. This is also Horgan鈥檚 fourth trip to nationals.
Curling fans will recognize the name as the Horgans are younger brothers to Tracy Fleury and Jennifer Wylie (both nee Horgan), who have competed at two Scotties Tournament of Hearts and numerous Grand Slam events.
鈥淲e鈥檝e been working hard for a while now and reaping rewards,鈥� Tanner, who is coached by his father Gerry, told CBC Radio. 鈥淲ith the defending champions not coming back this year, I would see us seeded first going in. It鈥檚 pretty amazing that we can even call ourselves the first seed going in. That鈥檚 an amazing accomplishment in itself.鈥�
The team has patterned itself after Brad Jacob鈥檚 Olympic gold medal rink, also based out of Northern Ontario.
Clarke 鈥� and her third Karlee Burgess and second Janique LeBlanc 鈥� are also back from their 2016 Canadian and World gold-medal finishes with former skip Mary Fay, who stepped away from the game to focus on university studies. The team has added Emily Lloyd at lead.
鈥淢ary was obviously a really talented curler, but I think the most difficult thing was Karlee and Janique had curled with her for so long,鈥� Clarke recently told LocalExpress.ca. 鈥淪o it was more about building a new team dynamic this year, that was the hard part.
鈥淎s difficult as it was to move on and try to find another player, by changing our mindset a bit and looking at it as a new team for this season, we鈥檝e really developed a new dynamic that鈥檚 working really well for us,鈥� added Clarke who joined the team last season.
It was the first time Nova Scotia had won a provincial junior title since Jill Mouzar accomplished the feat in 2004, also in Victoria.
Team sa国际传媒 skips Corryn Brown (with Nanaimo鈥檚 Marka Van Osch at third) and Tyler Tardi should also battle for the top prizes and the right to advance to the 2017 World Junior Curling Championships in Gangneung, South Korea.
Brown is the 2013 Canadian champion along with her lead Samantha Fisher. Dezaray Hawes of Anmore is the second on the sa国际传媒 team. Brown is also a two-time silver medallist at the CIS University Championships and Van Osch and Hawes were both on Sarah Daniels鈥� sa国际传媒 team that finished second nationally to Fay last year.
Tardi and his crew of third Sterling Middleton, second Jordan Tardi and lead Nicholas Meister won bronze at last year鈥檚 Canadian juniors, losing the semifinal to Dunstone.
There are many other capable teams among the 14 junior women鈥檚 rinks and 13 junior men鈥檚 foursomes (Yukon did not field a men鈥檚 team for this U-21 championship, just for the U-18 event).
One can never discount Manitoba鈥檚 men, represented by J.T. Ryan this season. The curling-rich province has claimed the last four junior men鈥檚 national championships with Dunston winning two and Braden Calvert the other two.
Ryan knocked off Calvert this season and for that reason alone should be considered a contender here. Saskatchewan, Alberta and Ontario are also traditionally strong provinces.
Play begins Saturday with a 1:30 p.m. draw and teams will be divided into two pools in each of the women鈥檚 and men鈥檚 draws, with seedings based on records from the 2016 Canadian championships. Following a round robin, the top four in each pool advance to the championship round, carrying forward their won-lost records.
This is the third time the national junior championships visit Victoria; the last time was 2004 when both the men and women competed. It was also here in 1979 when the provincial capital played host to the junior men鈥檚 championship.
sa国际传媒 has won eight Canadian crowns, the latest of which was Brown.
Most teams arrived Thursday night and will be on the ice today for their first practices.
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