Mitch Calvert
The Muskie boys’ curling rink fell short in its bid for a berth at the all-Ontarios after finishing out of the medals at the NWOSSAA final in Red Lake.
“We had one shaky end in three of the games and kind of shot ourselves in the foot a couple times,” Muskie coach Tom Fry said.
“That’s pretty much what the story was.”
The rink opened with a 4-2 loss to Rainy River, beat Westgate 7-6 in an extra end, lost to Hammarskjold 7-5, doubled Nip-Rock 4-2, and then were ousted by Geraldton 7-1 to finish the round-robin at 2-3.
Geraldton went undefeated to claim top spot and the trip to OFSAA while Hammarskjold and Rainy River both finished second at 3-2.
Fry said his squad, which featured Isaac Keffer, Ethan Jordbro, Peter Jensen, Cody Heyens, and Travis Bois, all will be returning next season for another go at it.
“These are all second- and third-year students, so they’ll all be back next year,” he remarked. “We just chalk it up as a learning experience and shoot for next year.
“One thing of note was the strength of the Thunder Bay teams wasn’t anywhere near what we’ve seen in the past, and it doesn’t look like it’s going to be that much stronger in the next year or two anyway,” Fry added.
“The Geraldton team is strong and they’ll all be back next year, so we’ll see.”
In related news, the Muskie girls’ squad was deemed ineligible for the NWOSSAA playoffs despite winning NorWOSSA gold because team member Carly Busch is only in Grade 8.
“We are allowed to have a Grade 8 player only for NorWOSSA if we don’t have enough high school players to field a team,” Fort High athletic director John Gibson explained in an e-mail to the Times.
Meanwhile, the Muskie boys’ team won’t be putting their brooms away quite yet as all five will represent the local club at the Bantam provincial playdowns March 19-22 in Sudbury.
