2024-02-28

Bridgewater underdogs win u13 provincial curling title

BRIDGEWATER - It's a bit of an underdog story.

A mixed curling team, led by skip Ivy Hebb, representing the Bridgewater Curling Club recently won the u13 provincial championships, something that they, nor the coach expected, having just been put together this past October.

The team, consisting of Hebb, third Chase Stanford, second Emma Veinotte and lead Wren Boudreau went undefeated in six games at the championship hosted by the Glooscap Curling Club Feb. 9 through 11.

Hebb said it was "pretty fun" and said the key to their success was "figuring out the weight" quickly. At this level, they just play four ends, so this is key in picking up the win and getting the lead early is also important as there isn't much time to try and make a come-back.

"We were all speechless," said Hebb on the win. "We didn't expect to do this at all."

Coach Bob Martin admitted that he was also "surprised" at their success.

Along with the big moment of winning the event, they were very happy when they defeated three all-male teams including a couple of teams "that everyone thought were going to win it all," Martin commented.

At this level, teams can be made up of all males, females or any mixture of the two.

The team did play a fair amount since October and the week prior to the u13 provincials, they competed in the u15 event and although they didn't win any of the four, six-end, games they played, the experience "of playing the older kids, definitely helped."

Martin said that "it was an amazing weekend for the girls for sure. To see their smiles at the end when they won the whole thing..."