With the Holiday Season less than a month away, Team Perreault would dearly love to supplement their love of singing on the ice with a traditional classic.
Fact is the Idylwylde Golf & Country Club U18 quartet are already halfway through the opening line of O Come, All Ye Faithful.
“I think we’re a really joyful team,” noted skip Sophie Perreault, chatting after practice this week as her squad that includes Vivienne Bolestridge (third), Gracie Schmidt (second) and Caitlyn Connors (lead) prepares to compete at the Gateway Granite Classic in North Bay this weekend.
“I think when other teams talk about us, they say we’re always smiling, we’re always having fun on the ice,” added Perreault, a grade 10 student at Collège Notre-Dame. “You can even see us singing on the ice.”
Outstanding!
The task ahead is to move this local foursome towards the range of “joyful and triumphant”, as the storied Christmas carol suggests.
Though comprised of a roster that is entirely either 15 or 16 years of age and competing in a U18 bracket that features a number of teams just a little bit older, Team Perreault have shown the ability to duke it out with some of the best team in the province – and beyond.
Their preliminary matches in North Bay include battles opposite Summer St James (Pointe-Claire, PQ), Caitlyn Stewart (Alliston), Samantha St Onge (Ottawa) and Jayme Galardo (Barrie) – and Perreault has a very good handle on what her rink needs to do in order to walk away with a few more “W’s” in the books.
“I think we just have to be more consistent,” she said. “We can beat really good teams – and we have. But some games are really bad for us. If we could stay more consistent and keep all of our games up there instead of just half of them, that would make us a lot better.”
That said, the notion of a particular game spiraling out of control is certainly not unique to these Sudbury teens, with curlers faced with a series of tough decisions once they get down by three or four points.
“We might try and change up our strategy,” explained Perreault. “We will play a lot more aggressive and will take risky shots instead of the simple shots. If we don’t do that, we might get one point, but that’s not really going to get us very far.”
True enough – but the very nature of “risky” shots is that they are anything but a guaranteed make, even for supremely talented shot-makers, meaning the possibility of a very crooked looking scoreboard obviously does exist.
That is something that this group who are now in their second year together (Caitlyn Connors joined last year – the remaining trio date back to 2003) is dearly hoping to avoid as they look to secure a top three placement in their six-team pool, enough to advance them to the quarter-finals on Sunday.
“If we kept the games close and tried our best, that would be good,” said Perreault. “As long as we don’t come out with scores of 0-15 – because that would be really sad.”
Joining Team Perreault in North Bay this weekend are a pair of fellow Idylwylde reps as Kameron Tellier skips her new team of Lily Ranger, Rosslyn Bell and Willow Walters while Jake Crawford leads his lads into battle, joined by third Linkoln Dufoe, second Kerek Boychuk, lead Brayden Wilson and alternate Kasey Crawford.
Of course, many of the eyes within the Sudbury curling community will be directed towards Halifax (Nova Scotia), with three local siblings hoping to earn a coveted Canadian berth for the upcoming Winter Olympic Games in Italy.
Two-time world champion Tracy Fleury joins skip Rachel Homan, second Emma Miskew and lead Sarah Wilkes as the event favourites, kicking off their seven game round robin sequence with encounters against Kate Cameron on Saturday and Christina Black and Kayla Skrlik on Sunday.
Meanwhile, younger brothers Jacob and Tanner Horgan have joined long-time teammate Ian McMillan and well-established skip John Epping for what has been a very impressive run these past two years. That said, at this level, they remain the outsiders looking in as they try to work their way into playoff contention, beginning with games against Matt Dunstone (Saturday) and Mike McEwen (Sunday).
A little closer to home, the Stu Sells Living Waters Collingwood Classic has already kicked off play with Sudbury native Kendra Lilly, skip Krista Scharf and their team looking to defend their title at the bonspiel that includes a smattering of Sudbury connections.
Joining the Thunder Bay based rink in the 11 team field are the Krysta Burns rink (Maddy Warriner, Sara Guy, Laura Masters), the Emma Artichuk rink (Jamie Smith, Evelyn Robert, Lauren Rajala) and the Danielle Inglis rink (Kira Brunton, Calissa Daly, Cassandra de Groot).
Long-time Sudbury curling mainstay Duncan Bell will join skip Al Belec and the Sault Ste Marie entry of Al Harnden and Marc Barrette at the 2025 Canadian Senior Curling Championships in Ottawa from November 29th through to December 6th.
Finally, 40 teams will gather in Guelph next week for the U21 Mixed Doubles East Qualifier, a field that includes Ben Miskiw and Samantha Digiglio and Riley Winters and Kameron Tellier.
