OLDS — This weekend, curling fans will have a chance to watch some of the best young male curlers in the province compete in the U20 Provincial Men’s Qualifier at the Sportsplex in Olds.
Their goal is to qualify for the U20 Provincial Championship, which will be held in Spruce Grove Jan. 24-29.
Eight teams will duke it out from across the province.
They are the James Ballance rink of Okotoks/Lethbridge, the Kinley Burton team from the Granite Club in Edmonton, the Beau Cornelson rink from Camrose, the Zach Davies rink from Edmonton’s Saville Centre, the Jaxon Hiebert rink from Sherwood Park, the Daniel Humbke rink from Lacombe, the Matthew Perozak rink from Sherwood Park/Okotoks/Lethbridge and the Kenan Wipf rink from Cochrane/St. Albert.
Tammy Schwass, a member of the Olds Curling Club’s communications team, says the quality of the curling will be very high.
She notes that the Wipf and Burton rinks both competed at the Canadian U18 championships last year.
“It’s part of the Curling Alberta development program, so you know, there could be curlers that are future players that advance into professional curling or into the Brier, things like that," Schwass said during an interview.
“It's definitely high-level curling; pretty much as high as it gets within the province for that age group.”
Draw times are 7 p.m. Jan. 13, 10 a.m., 2:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Jan. 14. The final will begin at 10 a.m. on Jan. 15. Admission is free.
Schwass said the club applied to host the qualifier about a year ago and learned last summer that their application was successful.
