First time’s the charm for young curling team

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 09/02/2011 (5652 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It took exactly one bonspiel for Kyle Doering and his team to realize they were a good fit for each other.

That event — the first that Doering, third Colton Lott, second Derek Oryniak and lead Lucas Van Den Bosch had entered as a foursome — happened to be the Canada Winter Games qualifier. And they happened to win.

“We really didn’t have many expectations, but it turned out really well,” said the 15-year-old skip from East St. Paul. “There was no pressure on us.”

That was last April, and the team from the West Kildonan Curling Club has been preparing for their chance to represent Manitoba in Halifax ever since. The curling event will take place during the second week of the Games, which run from Feb. 11 to 27.

Sport Manitoba and Curl Manitoba have provided the team with coaching, personal training, nutritional counseling and sports psychology.

“I think we’ve improved as a team this year,” said Lott, 15, who lives in Sandy Hook. “We finished fourth in the provincial juniors (against players up to 20 years old.)”

For Oryniak, a 16-year-old from North Kildonan, the realization that he would be representing his province in a national competition didn’t start to sink in until the team began taking part in activities with the entire multi-sport Team Manitoba that is headed for Halifax.

“When we started meeting with some of the other sports I was like, ‘Wow! This is a big deal,’ ” he said.

Van Den Bosch, the rink’s elder statesman at 17, said he expects the team to be a little jittery at first, but to quickly focus on the job at hand.

“For sure we’ll be nervous,” said the Fort Garry resident, “but we’ll be alright. We’ve already played in some events that we had never played in before. We got the nerves out pretty good in the junior championship.”

The Doering rink plans to take its usual style — more draws than takeouts, leaving plenty of rocks in play — to Halifax. Whether that matches up well against the other provinces remains to be seen.

“Our key is the finesse game,” Doering said. “We’re not that bad at it, but our specialty isn’t takeouts. We’re hoping not to get into that kind of game.”

While representing Manitoba is something for an athlete to be proud of in any sport, the players believe it means a little more to do it in curling because of the game’s rich history in the province.

“It means a lot to us. This is a one-time deal,” Lott said, before quickly correcting himself. “This event is a one-time deal. Hopefully not representing Manitoba.”

The curlers are all looking forward to being part of a larger team of 250 athletes in 20 sports, and with only one game a day during the round robin they’ll have a chance to watch many of their fellow athletes.

The players believe they can compete with anyone, but after their success in the qualifying event they’ll hope to use a familiar mindset in Halifax.

“We’re not going to be favoured,” Doering said, “so we’ll use the same mentality. We’ll play our best and see what happens. We’re definitely capable of medalling.”

avi.saper@canstarnews.com