Local athletes will be among the thousands of Canadians competing at the 2015 Canada Winter Games in Prince George, B.C. later this week.
Saskatchewan is represented by 300 athletes, coaches, managers, technicians and participant assistants to the games, which showcases some of the best young athletes Canada has to offer.
Loreburn is sending two athletes to the games that go from Feb. 13 to March 1. Ian Abbot, 20, is on Team Sask’s 10-member badminton team and Jasey Book, 16, will be a goalie for Team Sask’s female hockey team. Book currently plays for the Swift Current Wildcats in the Saskatchewan Female Midget AAA Hockey League.
Chamberlain’s Carson Ackerman, 17, will be skipping Team Sask’s male curling team in the games. The team is coached by Carson’s dad Patrick and has been together for just over a year.
Carson is joined by Mitchell Dales of Melville, who is third; second is Kacey Rodland of Moose Jaw and Brett Behm, also of Moose Jaw, as lead. The rink won the Saskatchewan Winter Games last February, which qualified them for the Saskatchewan trials for the Canada Winter Games.
Patrick said the team started training in March 2014 and curled in about eight bonspiels in October and November to prepare for the trials, which were held in December in Regina. They also curl in Superleague in Moose Jaw. The Ackerman rink won the trials and the privilege to represent Saskatchewan at the Winter Games.
“They’re a good group of boys and they want to be there,” he says.
Their desire is important. Ackerman says it requires a big commitment from the teenage boys, whose weekends and some weeknights are spent at the curling rink.
He said CurlSask has developed a program geared to developing the province’s young curlers so that the province remains a force on the national and international curling scene.
CurlSask has assigned the Ackerman rink with a mentor coach to help them with skills or mental training. Travis Brown of Loreburn gives the team advice as needed.
“Travis is on my speed dial,” Patrick says.
Team Sask leaves for Prince George Thursday, has practice scheduled for Saturday and plays its first game against Quebec Sunday, Feb. 15.
Events will be streamed live on the Internet, so people should check the Canada Games website. Ackerman said the final, which is set for Friday, Feb. 20 will be televised on TSN.