Like every other sport, curling has changed over the years.

From this end, one of the early season realities is that some extra time needs to be spent catching up on exactly what the lineups for some of Sudbury’s more competitive entries look like.

Where it wasn’t unusual decades ago for a rink to stay together for the bulk of their elite curling years, teams that now reach a five-year anniversary at the top end of the game are far more the exception than the norm.

For much of their time in youth curling, Team Toner could boast a very consistent roster. Not so much these past few years – based in large part on the fact that as curlers reach their late teens and early twenties, life simply takes them in different directions.

All this to say that it was the latest incarnation of the U20 NCUCC (Northern Credit Union Community Centre) women’s team that advanced right through to the semi-finals of the Stu Sells Junior Tankard at High Park last weekend.

The foursome of Mia Toner (skip), Dayna Wahl (vice-skip), Justine Toner (second) and Samantha Digiglio (lead) posted a record of 2-1 in pool play, doubled the Peterborough rink skipped by Katelin Langford 8-4 in their wildcard showdown before falling 5-1 to the eventual champions, Melodie Forsythe and her Frederiction (NB) quartet.

For those who have followed this column for years, three quarters of the Team Toner rock throwers are very familiar names, with the Toner siblings and Digiglio are graduates of Sudbury high-school.

By contrast, Dayna Wahl is a Manitoban who, ironically, had previously skipped her team of Piper Stoesz, Anna Marie Ginters and Gillian Hildebrand from roughly grade seven right through the conclusion of her secondary school career – with basically no changes to the roster.

Like the Toner clan, curling is her blood.

“My whole family on my dad’s side were all curlers,” said the 19 year-old native of Altona (MB), currently a first year student at Laurentian University studying Interdisciplinary Sciences.

“My grandpa, my great grandpa and probably every grandpa before that, basically, were curlers.”

Toner and Wahl would initially connect, in earnest, back in February of 2023, with both skips leading their teams at the U18 Canadian Curling Championships in Timmins. “We had hotel rooms that were close to each other and ended up hanging out in the lobby, playing card games and such,” noted Wahl.

“They ended up getting sick, so we brought them some gift (Get Well) baskets – and then played them on the TV sheet at that event. We got to know them and stayed in touch.”

All of which was quite fortuitous when the time came for Wahl to take a little bit of an altered look at the game that she loves, something a little more out of the norm of what she had become accustomed to, one winter after the next.

“I had been a skip for basically my entire life and that was the main thing I wanted a change from, just to see the game from a different perspective,” said Wahl. Sensing that might be challenging given the long-standing history of the Altona quartet with whom she had enjoyed both success and wonderful memories, Wahl swallowed hard and made the move east.

“I probably reached out almost a year ago,” she said. “Once we kind of knew that this was a thing, that Dayna was going to move out here, we had Zoom meetings once a week to go over curling preferences, strategic things.”

“I trust Mia a lot,” Wahl added. “She’s a very knowledgeable skip. Whatever she tells me, I am comfortable with. We see the game very similarly on a lot of levels. If she thinks that’s the shot to make, I am good to go with that.”

The Stu Sells was actually the second bonspiel of the season for Team Toner, a crew that have yet to practice together outside of that given that both Mia and Justine Toner attend Queen’s University in Kingston (with Samantha Digiglio joining Wahl at Laurentian).

“Shot-making wise, we were definitely more in the groove at Stu Sells – and communication-wise,” said Wahl. “I noticed a difference and our results showed a difference.”

The team is back in action next weekend, taking part in the Open Women’s Stroud Cash Spiel, just outside of Barrie.

This weekend also sees another new gathering of accomplished long-time curlers – albeit with little in the way of any kind of long-term goals in sight.

Sisters Amanda (38) and Jenny Gates (34) are also at the High Park Club, joined by Kerry Galusha from Yellowknife and Manitoban Raunora Westcott in competing at the Stu Sells Toronto Tankard, marking the re-appearance of the local tandem at a World Curling Tour event.

“We are just a team for this spiel,” noted Jenny with a chuckle, “We won’t be competing in playdowns together – but we’ve been friends for a really long time and have played against each other for a really long time.”

In many ways, this perhaps speaks best to the transiency of lineups in a sport that is known for consistently welcoming a social component to the mix.

“One of the great things about curling is that you are so often friends with your competitors,” said Gates.

While neither Amanda nor Jenny Gates are strangers to national championships, the more recent years has seen their focus shift towards their respective careers, with curling often limited more so to charity bonspiels and the like, settings that are even that much more relaxed for the family that is known as one of the most welcoming curling clans in the country.

“We are friends with Stu (Sells), so we decided to do this kind of for fun, but also to compete,” admits Gates, her team ranked 24th and in tough in their opening two games against Silvana Tirinzoni of Switzerland (5-3 loss) and Laurie St Georges of Montreal (7-5 loss).

Now, their focus shifts to a last chance at the triple-knockout format, battling Danielle Inglis and fellow Sudburian Kira Brunton on Saturday. Still, this might not be the last that we see of the Gates’ girls at top-end curling tournaments.

“I don’t think that would be a surprise,” said Jenny. “We have a big love of curling and would love to get back into that competitive nature. I don’t think it would be to the same extent that it was, in terms of number of events, but I don’t think it would be a surprise at all.”