Exactly what the future of elite junior curling in Sudbury holds in store once skips Mia Toner and Brendan Rajala age out from the U20 bracket in the next year or two is highly uncertain - but for now, at least, the decorated duo are still carrying the torch at NOCA provincials, along with a sprinkling of local talent.
Team Toner and Team Rajala are the only two local entries at the Fort Frances bonspiel that serves as the qualifier to nationals in Prince Edward Island (March 22nd - March 30th) - and even then, ties to the nickel city are not nearly as thick as they were in the bulk of the past two decades.
“There’s not many junior curlers still in Sudbury so I knew if I wanted to play in provincials, I would have to go out of town,” noted Rajala, a graduate of Lasalle Secondary School who will head up a team that embraces the Sault Ste Marie curling troika of Justin MacKay (vice), Ben Miskiw (second) and Jake Clouthier (lead).
When they took to the ice Thursday night opposite the Riley Winters North Bay Granite Club entry, it marked the first actual game that the quartet had competed together. For as much as the Lock City trio enjoy a great deal of familiarity together, Rajala is learning on the fly as he looks to advance to the Canadian showdown for a third time.
“I knew all of them from having played against them before - and I always got along well with them, so I figured we could be a good team,” said Rajala, right in the middle of his second year of Electrical studies at Cambrian College.
“We didn’t have much time to practice together and what-not, just because we have all been so busy. I went to the Sault a few days ago, just to familiarize ourselves.”
The bonus to this arrangement is that the Northern Ontario men will send a pair of teams to nationals courtesy of a silver medal performance at the 2023 Canadian U20 Championships by Team Burgess, with only four rinks entered in the competition this weekend.
“I try not to go in with super huge expectations - just go out there and do our best,” stated Rajala. “There are two spots for nationals so I would be fine with just making the finals.”
For as much as both the Rajala foursome and the rink skipped by Kamdyn Julien representing the Horne Granite Curling Club (New Liskeard) are likely the older squads, with Team Winters (above) and Jacob Curtis (Port Arthur) still with a handful of U20 playdowns in their future, the newness of the Northern Credit Union Community Center crew means that little is guaranteed.
“I think we are all on the same page; our communication is all pretty similar,” said Rajala. “It will really be about finding the right rhythm and then execution. We need to work out the kinks and try and see what works.”
As for Team Toner, there is undoubtedly far more familiarity within the quartet, even if it’s not an all-Sudbury grouping. Sisters Mia (skip) and Justine Toner (second) have been more or less inseparable since first taking to the sport years ago, with Samanta Digiglio (lead) typically an on-ice adversary, equally groomed on a local basis.
The addition of Dayna Wahl from Manitoba serves as the reminder to this team that challenges remain, even on the girls side of the junior curling bracket in Sudbury, the groundswell for a collection of national level talent that has featured the likes of world champion Tracy Fleury as well as Kendra Lilly, Kira Brunton, Amanda Gates, Jennifer (Horgan) Wylie, Krysta Burns and so many others just in the past two decades or so.
“I really have a great feeling about this team,” said Mia (Toner), her troupe just one of five of are all vying for the one solitary spot up for grabs on the female side of the ledger in Fort Frances: Deanna Chilton (McIntyre CC - Timmins); Claire Dubinsky (Kakabeka Falls CC); Emma Tucker (Fort Frances CC) and Lily Wright (Kakabeka Falls CC).
“We’re very connected and very prepared, I would say,” added Toner. “There have been challenges with school (both Toner siblings attend Queen’s University in Kingston) and Dayna coming from Manitoba, but this has worked out really well.”
Unlike Team Rajala, the Toner side have at least benefitted from some dozen games or so contested in bonspiel settings across Ontario, with both Mia and Justine able to draw on the experience of previous nationals and Digiglio having just returned from a great showing with Brendan Rajala at the U20 Mixed Doubles qualifier out in the Maritimes.
“There is just a feeling that you get when you know you have a strong bond with your teammates - and I feel that we’ve got that on this team,” said Toner.
Well recognized as one of the most cordial collections of curlers that you will ever meet, Toner and company somehow find a way to ramp up the intensity on the ice while trying to make the most of their experience away from the rink.
“We’ve got some strong competitors in Northern Ontario but it is nice to know that we get along with everyone,” said Toner. “We all share the same experiences from small towns in the north. Curling in Northern Ontario is very different because you have to put in that extra work, travel-wise - and even the area where you are finding players to make up a team.”
“That’s something you don’t get everywhere.”
In fact, it’s not even something you necessarily got, even just 10 to 15 years ago in Sudbury.
“I think Covid really disrupted things,” said Rajala. “Covid hit right when our age group were really starting to travel to go to events. We managed to stick through it, but we saw a lot of other teams just drop out. There are a fair amount of younger teams (in Sudbury), but nothing in that older 18, 19, 20 years old range.”
Exactly what the 2027 NOCA U20 Championships will look like from a Sudbury perspective remains to be seen - so for now, let’s enjoy what the locals have to offer.
