Mitch Calvert
The local Bantam boys’ curling rink put in a courageous effort at the provincial championship in Sudbury last weekend despite being without skip Isaac Keffer, but fell one win short in a bid to advance to Sunday’s Page playoffs.
The foursome finished the round-robin at 3-2 in a tie for second spot, but fell in a playoff to Josh Szajewski (Keewatin Curling Club) by a 6-1 score in seven ends Saturday night.
“We came up a little cold there [in the playoff],” coach Tom Fry admitted.
“I’m very proud of them, though,” he added. “Especially considering they were thrown into a situation where they hadn’t had much of an opportunity to play their positions too much before this weekend.”
Keffer, who was in Italy with the Fort Frances High School band over the March Break, forced Ethan Jordbro into the skip role and bumped Cody Heyens, Peter Jensen, and Travis Bois up a spot.
Jensen and Heyens both were selected to the tournament all-star team.
The local foursome opened play with a 5-4 win in an extra end over Szajewski on Thursday, but their Northwestern Ontario rival got revenge in the tie-breaker.
They lost their second match to Scott Tremblay (Sudbury) 5-4 on Friday, then dropped a 7-4 decision to Mark Dugas (Sault Ste. Marie) that night.
But they rebounded by beating powerhouse Jay Turner (Geraldton) 6-2 on Saturday morning before wrapping up the round-robin that afternoon with a 9-5 win over Erik Luczak of the host Idylwylde Curling Club.
Turner ended up nipping Szajewski 5-4 in Sunday’s final to capture the gold medal.
The rink, who also competed as the Muskie boys’ curling team, will remain largely intact for at least another year at the high school level while both Keffer and Heyens are eligible for the Bantams again next year.
“They are a pretty young team and have at least a year of high school left,” Fry noted. “We are looking to put Cody and Isaac together with another couple of kids to see if we can take another run at the Bantams next year.”
While the provincials signalled the end of the competitive curling season for the team as a whole, they won’t be shutting down entirely just yet.
“They’ve just got a little bit of club play left, and they are splitting up for a couple of year-end bonspiels here, but nothing together has a team,” Fry said.
