On The Rocks: Trenton Curling Club News

Posted Feb 16, 2012 By EMC News

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First place bonspiel winners from the left are: vice Melissa Whyte, second Tyler Mifsud, lead Elayna Reid, and skip Zack Bernstein.

Harry Kranenburg

First place bonspiel winners from the left are: vice Melissa Whyte, second Tyler Mifsud, lead Elayna Reid, and skip Zack Bernstein.

EMC Sports - This past weekend, Napanee was home to one of Canada's premier curling events: the Canadian Junior Championships. If you happened to tune in, you were treated to a superb display of skills by these young provincial and territorial champs as they competed for a chance to represent Canada in the World Championships. But how do you get to this level? Well, they probably started off at local clubs, learning their skills in the little rock and junior programmes under the tutelage of dedicated volunteers like our Jake Ridder, Sharon Macron, and Julie Whyte.

So I was quite surprised on Sunday morning when my wife casually asked if I knew there was a Little Rock Bonspiel happening in Campbellford that day and that the Trenton Club had entered two teams. Off I went and I must admit, the sight that greeted me in the lounge of the Campbellford and District Curling and Racquetball Club was amazing. Parents, friends, coaches and organizers were making last-minute preparations to send their 56 charged-up young athletes to the ice.

Campbellford spokesperson Ben Godden said this was the first Little Rock Bonspiel to be held at their club, and hoped this would be the start of an annual event. Fourteen teams from Campbellford, Belleville, Brighton, and Trenton had registered to play. The bonspiel was organized as a point spiel with points awarded: five points for a win, ten points for a second win, one point per end won, and a quarter point for points scored.

Each team played two four-end games with the lighter junior rocks. As well, each team had their coach on the ice, but in typical curling sportsmanship, each coach assisted the opposing team players as well: one of life's positive reinforcements for young minds.

Since this is the Trenton Curling Club news, I am happy to say that the Trenton Curling Club Polar Bears with skip Zack Bernstein, lead Elayna Reid, second Tyler Mifsud, and vice Melissa Whyte, coached by Jake Ridder placed first with a 25.75-point total. The TTC Canucks with skip Mathew Martin, lead Ashton Loeder, second Trent Mifsud, and vice Catherine Martin, coached by Sharon Marcon finished in third place with an 11-point total.

Congratulations to our club's winners, and to all of the participants from our sister clubs. They all showed us a thing or two about skills, love of a sport, friendly competition, and sportsmanship: on the rocks.

For league standings, please visit our web site at .