Lucas Punkari
It’s a year of change for the Muskie curling rinks in NorWOSSA play as the skip and vice-skip from last year’s mixed squad now are in charge of the boys’ and girls’ squads, respectively.
For the boys, returning Grade 12 student Luke Esselink is the skip, with ninth-graders Reese Jones (third), Cole Turcotte (second), and Kurt McGuire (lead) all in their first seasons in the high school ranks.
“It’s a little bit different than last year, for sure,” admitted Esselink, who was the fifth on Isaac Keffer’s silver medal-winning rink at last season’s OFSAA playdowns in Thunder Bay.
“It’s definitely more of a learning experience, not just for the new guys on the team but for myself, as well,” he added.
Meanwhile, 10th-grader Karleigh Wright and Megan Patterson, in Grade 11, both have moved up from their roles at third and second, respectively, on the mixed rink to become the skip and third for the Muskie girls this season.
Grade 9 students Elyssa Hughes, Nicole Hartlin, and Hailey Beaudry are rotating in the second and lead positions.
“It’s going to take a little bit to get everything working for everyone, but I think we are playing quite well for a brand new team,” Wright noted.
Both squads, the only two rinks the Muskies are fielding this season because there wasn’t enough players for a mixed one, competed in a NorWOSSA exhibition bonspiel this past Sunday and Monday at the Fort Frances Curling Club.
The boys, who competed on both days of the bonspiel, ended up finishing with a 4-2 record—earning wins over one of the two Kenora Bronco rinks, as well as St. Thomas Aquinas (Kenora), Atikokan, and Rainy River.
Their two setbacks came at the hands of Queen Elizabeth (Sioux Lookout) and the other Kenora Bronco rink.
“I know that I made a couple of shots and I also missed a few shots out there, so I guess for myself I was about half-and-half,” Esselink joked.
“In total, everyone did fairly well I thought, and as the weekend went along, I thought we got a bit better.
“And I’m really happy with how we are progressing as a team,” he added.
The girls’ rink, meanwhile, played all of their games on Sunday and compiled a 1-2-1 mark, with their lone win coming against Atikokan.
“Even though we have curled only three games together against these rinks, I think we curled really well,” Wright said of her team, who tied Rainy River but lost to Kenora and Sioux Lookout.
“We were never really consistent in our lineup during the weekend as our regular third [Patterson] was sick, so we had to do some rotations to fill in that spot when she was.
“But we were able to work through it.”
With the next set of games being the NorWOSSA qualifiers Jan. 28-29 in Atikokan, both Esselink and Wright will be working on a few different things with their teams in order to prepare.
“I think for us, the main thing we’ll be working on is with our weights,” said Esselink, who likes to play a lot of take-outs in his own game and give his teammates shots they are comfortable with.
“It’ll just be working on making sure that our draw and take-out weights are solid going into Atikokan,” he reasoned.
“As a new team, it takes some time to build up our teamwork, which is the main thing for us going forward,” noted Wright, who likes to play a clean game.
“Making sure that our weight and our line calls are good [is] going to be big, as well,” she conceded.
“But like I said, once we play more games, we should be fine,” Wright stressed.
