The Horgan Family trifecta hit the jackpot in the pantheon that is elite Canadian curling recently – but one senses that this may not be the last time it happens.

On the very same weekend that Jake and Tanner Horgan were qualifying for their first trip to the Tim Hortons Brier, their older sister (Tracy Fleury) was busy booking her ticket for what will be her sixth appearance at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts.

Throw in the fact that Team McCarville vice Kendra Lilly will also be on hand in Kamloops, as will Kira Brunton (selected as alternate for Team Homan – with Fleury et al), and that a pair of local rinks begin play on Sunday/Monday at the 2023 Canadian U18 Curling Championships and folks may seriously have to re-think whether Sudbury is a hockey-town, first and foremost.

While the Scotties might be old hat for Fleury and Lilly, the breakthrough to the Brier is new territory for the Horgan boys who made more than a handful of trips to the Canadian Juniors, twice returning with silver medals and once with bronze.

“Honestly, after we made our last shot, a lot of it was just a blur,” said Jake Horgan, earlier this week. “A lot of emotions were swept away, just realizing how long and hard we have worked to get to this point.”

Folks at the Northern Credit Union Community Centre (NCUCC) were able to truly enjoy the Northern Ontario men’s final last Sunday, knowing that regardless of the outcome, the newly rebranded club (formerly Curl Sudbury – and Sudbury Curling Club before that) was about to have representation at the Brier.

An all-NCUCC final would see Team Horgan (also includes Darren Moulding and Colin Hodgson) upend the Sandy MacEwan rink (Dustin Montpellier, Lee Toner, Luc Ouimet) 7-5, capping off a wild ride for the eventual gold medal winners who started play at 1-2. “We got together as a team and regrouped; we knew that we wanted to keep playing (meaningful games) this year,” said Tanner.

“Every win after that was a fight to keep our season going.”

“Driving to our fourth game (an 8-1 win over Team Burgess), Tanner mentioned about our first junior (NOCA) win, that we started with the same record and needed to win five in a row,” recalled Jake. “We had done this before, had been in this situation, which gave us some confidence knowing that it’s still very much possible and completely in our hands.”

Their biggest win, arguably, prior to the finals may have been the 6-4 victory over Brad Jacobs that propelled the locals into the page playoff bracket – simply because of the challenge that was presented by the highly-decorated Sault Ste Marie curler. "The Northern Ontario Tankard has been his event for the past 14 years or so,” said Tanner.

“I think it was huge to play him earlier (before their three-game run through the playoffs). Getting through that game was really good for us.”

Beating Kory Carr (9-3) and Trevor Bonot (7-5), Team Horgan survived the stiffest of tests, a wonderful take-away from their bonspiel in Kenora, even with more than a month to go before playing starts at the Brier on March 3rd in London. “Whatever we were able to tap into as a team through those last five games, if we can tap into it going into the Brier, then I think we can build something special here,” Tanner continued.

“I like our chances of making the best of our time at the Brier.”

“You want to have that strong balance at the Brier between cherishing every moment, living in the moment, but also staying as focused as possible to perform as well as we possibly can,” added Jake.

If Kendra Lilly, Krista McCarville, Ashley Sippala and Sarah Potts are to out-perform their 2022 showing at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts, that can mean only one thing: the Thunder Bay based rink will have earned a trip to Sandviken (Sweden), site of the 2023 World playdowns.

Competing at home last February, the NOCA champs advanced to the final before dropping a 9-6 decision to defending national champion, Kerri Einarson. After posting a record of 5-1 in round robin play, Team McCarville looked very much in command in Kenora, beating Jackie McCormick 7-4 and Sudbury native Krysta Burns (Katie Ford, Sara Guy, Laura Masters) in the championship encounter.

“It was nice being back in a provincial final and thinking that we’ve been here before, we know how we have to play,” said Lilly. “We kind of try and stick to the process that has led us to prepare for provincials and big games before. Honestly, we stuck to what we know.”

Where the men have more than a month to now prepare for Canadians, the women will start play on February 17th, with the McCarville quartet kicking things off the next morning against Jennifer Jones (Manitoba). “I think I prefer how we have it right now,” suggested Lilly. “I don’t mind it being a little bit closer because we are kind of rolling right now.”

“I remember one year when it was only nine days between the two, which was probably a little too quick, but two and a half weeks is nice.”

By contrast, Tracy Fleury would likely just as soon forget about the 2022 Scotties.

Testing positive for Covid upon her arrival in Thunder Bay, Fleury had to sit out much of the event, returning for the final round robin game but eventually finishing fourth. Even without the excitement of joining the new Ontario powerhouse roster that also includes Rachel Homan, Emma Miskew and Sarah Wilkes, Fleury would still have been more than a little amped up for the 2023 national bonspiel.

“It’s been a few years since I’ve been able to compete in a full Scotties,” she said. “I think it’s exciting going with a new team.”

While expectations were high for the re-jigged Team Homan, the Ottawa rink came through the provincial playdowns with flying colours, besting Hollie Duncan 9-2 in the final. “We knew that we were all trying new positions, so we tried to be really patient,” said Fleury. “We knew that on paper, our team had a lot of talent, a lot of potential, but we knew that it might not click right away.”

But with Homan throwing final stones but Fleury holding the broom as skip, the foursome already has a Grand Slam win and a final on their resume, playing a style that is not all that new for the super-friendly local woman. “It’s pretty similar, strategy-wise,” said Fleury.

“There’s a shot here and there that comes up where we might be on slightly different pages, but both my previous team and this team likes to play a fairly aggressive game with lots of rocks in play. We’re all pretty comfortable with that.”

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And this from our friend Dave Gallant in Espanola, having just recently hosted the Espanola Men's Bonspiel which attracted 16 teams from across the northeast. Bracket winners included:

"A" Division - Mike Assad, Paul Deschene, Michel Mayer, Steve Pellatt (defeated Team Gallant)
"B" Division - Junior team which included Ian Deschene
"C" Divsion - Jason Strelezki, Chris Gordon, Craig Ramsay, Steve Woytowich)
"D" Division - Team Dave Cutler

The event was made possible in part through the generous sponsorship of both Moosehead Breweries and NAPA Auto Parts - Bardon Automotive