It’s been quite the month of March for the Horgan curling clan this year.

As even the most casual of curling fans are aware in Sudbury, Tracy (Horgan) Fleury and Team Homan successfully defended their world title last week in South Korea, knocking off the Alina Paetz / Silvana Tirinzoni Swiss rink in the final for a second straight year.

At almost exactly the same time, younger brother Jacob and mixed doubles partner Kira Brunton followed up a 7-0 pool play performance with a quarter-final victory over Jesse Mullen/Emily Riley from Quebec, falling in the semi-final of the 2025 Canadian Mixed Curling Championships in P.E.I. to the eventual gold medal winning tandem of Kadriana Lott and Colton Lott – and that by a final score of 6-5.

All of this on the heels of the best Brier performance ever for siblings Jacob and Tanner Horgan, combining forces with skip John Epping and lead Ian McMillan in posting a 6-2 record in the preliminary round and missing out on the playoffs only by virtue of some bad luck when it came to tie-breakers.

But let’s start Uijeongbu (South Korea), where Fleury teamed with Rachel Homan (skip), Emma Miskew (second) and Sarah Wilkes (lead) to nearly mirror the standard that was set last year in Sydney (Nova Scotia), when the hometown favourites went 11-1 in the round robin portion to finish first, ousting South Korea (Eun-ji Gim) 9-7 in the semis and beating Switzerland 7-5 in the final.

This second time around was a little different, for a variety of reasons.

“Just being so far away from home was different,” noted Fleury upon her return to Sudbury earlier this week. “Last time, we had our families there; we really had the crowd support. It was more of an adventure this year – and dealing with the time change as well made things a little more challenging.”

Part of the “adventure” was the fact that Canada actually lost two games mid-week (8-7 to Scotland and 11-7 to South Korea), leaving the defending champs tied at 10-2 with the latter (Eun-ji Gim at skip once again), both teams one game back of the Swiss foursome.

This made the playoff pathway slightly more treacherous – and certainly lengthier – as Team Homan defeated Scotland (Sophie Jackson) 10-4 to avenge their second draw setback and eliminated South Korea for a second straight year in the semis, 6-5 in an extra end.

The 2025 final rematch was even closer than the year before, with Canada up 4-3 after seven ends but with Gim holding the hammer. A huge steal of two turned the game completely around as Fleury, Homan and company polished off a 7-3 win.

“I think it’s just the experience of being there before that helps so much,” said Fleury when asked about her team’s uncanny ability to emerge victorious in such a high percentage of close encounters. “Fortunately with our team, these past two years especially, we’ve had the opportunity to play in a lot of finals, getting to feel that nervous energy and to get used to it, get comfortable with it.”

That is almost invariably what Jacob Horgan and Kira Brunton experienced in Summerside, looking excessively dominant in running the table in their pool. To wit: a 6-5 win over the impressive duo of Brett Gallant and Jocelyne Peterman was the only victory for the pairing with strong Sudbury ties by less than five points.

Team Horgan/Brunton wasted little time taking control of the quarter-finals, scoring four in the first and quadrupling Mullen and Riley 8-2 before finding themselves holding a 5-3 lead over Lott/Lott with one end to play. But the husband and wife team from Manitoba were not defending champions for no reason as they pulled one out of the fire, scoring three in the eighth end for the win.

The team that represented the Northern Credit Union Community Centre in Sudbury (Horgan/Brunton) were hardly the only squad with local ties.

Sudbury native Megan Smith and partner Douglas Thomson kicked off their week with three straight wins but could not keep it up down the stretch, dropping critical matchups with Melissa Adams/Alex Robichaud (New Brunswick – 6-5) as well as Jessica Wiseman/Greg Smith (Newfoundland) to finish the week at 4-3.

The Northern Ontario spousal tandem of Nicole Westlund-Stewart and Tyler Stewart (who curled in Sudbury during his high-school years and went on to suit up with the Laurentian Voyageurs) took a while to hit their stride, tagged with five straight losses out of the gates but recording a “W” in each of their final two outings.

Also last week but much closer to home in Espanola, the NOCA (Northern Ontario Curling Association) crowned their representatives to the Everest Club Curling Championships in November, with teams from Little Current and North Bay making the cut in 2025.

The Manitoulin Island quartet of Jordan Chandler, Kyle Chandler, Ron McQuarrie and Jim Bickell took the most efficient pathway to their banner, winning three straight games to secure the “A” qualifier spot in the playoffs and then limited to just a 5-4 win in the final over Travis Belchior (Fort William CC), an entry that were playing their eighth game in five days.

Five women’s teams contested a full round robin before the Mackenzie Daley North Bay Granite Club side that features Joanne Forget, Jami Bowman and Taylor Patterson made it a perfect 5-0 tournament thanks to a 5-3 triumph over Megan St Amand (YNCU – Your Neighbourhood Credit Union – Sault Ste Marie).

Finally, the Idylwylde Golf & Country Club will serve as the site for the 2025 NOCA Mixed Provincial Championships beginning next Wednesday as a dozen teams made their way to Sudbury, with a good majority of the local competitive curling community in the field.

The nationals for the mixed grouping will take place from November 2nd to the 8th in Assiniboia, Saskatchewan.