Wahl, Hamm clinch Cargill Curling Training Centre Spring Classic

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This article was published 23/08/2020 (2099 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The dog days of August are not usually the time to stage the first curling event of the season.

But in a pandemic world, nothing seems strange anymore. At a time in which curlers had gone more than five months without game action, the long-delayed Cargill Curling Training Centre Spring Classic at the Morris Curling Club was an special event for an unusual time.

Billed as Canada’s first bonspiel since the shutdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Classic wrapped up play late Saturday night with men’s and women’s champions declared in the first Manitoba Junior Curling Tour event of the 2020-21 season.

In junior women’s action, 14-year-old Altona skip Dayna Wahl guided her team of lead Gillian Hildebrand, second Anna Ginters and third Piper Stoesz to a 6-5, extra-end victory over Assiniboine Memorial’s Cassie Stobbe, whose team also included Morgan Maguet at third, Emily Ogg at second and lead Danica Metcalfe.

In the men’s final, Reece Hamm of Assiniboine Memorial upended Virden’s Jace Freeman 7-2. Hamm’s squad also includes third Zachary McKeigan, second Tim Johnson and lead Graham Normand.

Freeman’s team, going with three players, included Ryan Ostrowsky at third and Andrew McKay at second.

The event, which feature eight male foursomes and three women’s teams, was regulated to meet Manitoba Health guidelines.

“All the restrictions worked out pretty good,” said the 18-year-old Hamm via telephone Sunday. “We tried to follow them as much as we could. It was hard. Everyone was excited about being back on the ice but everything went well.”

Lorne and Chris Hamblin, the husband-and-wife coaching team that runs the training centre Morris, worked closely with Curling Canada to prepare for the event.

When the sport’s governing body released its return-to-play guidelines last month, it included major modifications to sweeping and player positioning on the sheet, all part of conforming to physical distancing guidelines.

The most notable changes involving game play include the use of one sweeper, no brushing of the opposition’s stone behind the tee-line and new markings on ice for non-throwing team members to be positioned.

“We had played with three (players) before so it wasn’t all that different having one sweeper,” said Wahl, who will enter Grade 10 at W.C. Miller Collegiate this fall. “But for me as a skip, I had to stop myself from sweeping after the tee-line because obviously I’m not allowed to be that close to the other skip.”

The event, which also served as a test event, will be followed by the next MJCT bonspiel, also slated for Morris, on Sept. 11-13.

Prior to the event’s start Friday, competitors (each team was permitted one coach and each player allowed one extra spectator) were checked in outside the curling club and signed a COVID-19 form before viewing a 20-minute instructional video.

“Chris and I were really excited to see how it unfolded,” said Lorne Hamblin. “Just because Manitobans are good. For some reason we’re lucky in Manitoba — people understand the social distancing. We had done the video work for Curling Canada, which will appear on the website, but we showed all the teams the video of how we wanted them to work on ice and where they were supposed to stand.”

Hamlin was pleased to see the young players adapt to the new sweeping rules.

“There was never a question on the sweeping,” he said. “The person that wasn’t involved — we saw some neat things come of it that the coaches were talking about. That second person following — he or she was split-timing — they were constantly communicating, they were kinda their cheerleader.

“We may have broken some new ground here because there’s always been debate about the front sweeper who’s always six feet ahead of the rock. Maybe there’s a better role they play.”

Added Hamm: “Curling’s changed a little bit. Most teams are using one sweeper anyways for the type of sweeping that they’re doing. We’ve kind of adjusted and it’s been working out.”

There were alterations off the ice, too. Standard scoreboards, which would’ve required constant sanitizing, were abandoned in favour of whiteboards updated by a coach during each game and television remotes in the upstairs viewing lounge were put away in favour of a single-camera view of the ice.

Wahl went 2-2 during a double round-robin women’s schedule before beating the previously unbeaten Stobbe in the final.

“I think by the end of it we all were tired but we still played really well,” said Wahl, whose team was making its debut in the junior ranks.

Her team will be back in Morris for next month’s event, which already has eight women’s teams and 10 men’s foursomes registered.

Hamm, meanwhile, was thrilled by his team’s first bonspiel. He and Johnson played together last year while McKeighan and Normand are newcomers to the group.

“We’ve hoping to get into as many of these MJCT bonspiels as we can and get up in the rankings,” said Hamm. “After the event we just had, I’m looking for the top spot in Manitoba.”

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @sawa14