Tracy Horgan, Amanda Gates, Tara Stephen and Stephanie Barbeau
are hoping the third time is a charm as they prepare to face
Canada's best junior curlers at the national championships.
The Tracy Horgan Rink is making their third consecutive
appearance at the national tournament. In 2005, the team
finished fourth and they tied for third in 2006.
The M&M Meat Shops Canadian Junior Curling Championships
runs from Feb. 3 to 11 in St. Catherines. The girls left for
the tournament Thursday after a send-off party Monday at the
Idylwylde Country Club.
"It's unreal," the team said of their return to the national
scene.
"We're very fortunate to represent Northern Ontario," said
Gates, a 20-year-old Laurentian University student. "It's rare
that a team can pull it out and manage to do it three times in
a row."
She said consistency, especially this year, has been the reason
for the team's success.
It's safe to say their success probably has a little something
to do with practice - between training, league games and
tournaments, it's rare a day goes by when the girls aren't on
the ice.
Simply put, curling is their life.
"Our friends will attest to that," Gates said. "Or at least the
friends we had back in August, but I wouldn't trade it for
anything."
Each of the girls has at least 12 years of experience under
their belts. Horgan, Gates and Barbeau have been playing
together for several years while Stephen is the newest member
of the team.
Of all the games in the tournament, the Horgan Rink said the
match against the team from southern Ontario will be the
biggest. In the past two years, the south has fallen to the
north.
"We're ranked one position higher than the Ontario team,"
Barbeau said stoking the rivalry between north and south.
"The game we're going to be playing against them is going to be
talked about for the entire week," said Barbeau, 18, a student
at Macdonald-Cartier.
"Because who really deserves to represent Ontario? A lot of
people don't believe Northern Ontario should have a team . . .
we always feel like we have to win that game," Gates said.
The team's coach, Jan Pula, who has been coaching curling for
20 years, said with the amount of time and effort the girls
have invested in preparing for the tournament, they expect to
win it all.
"We have aspirations . . . and we're going to go out and play
as well as we're capable."
