Friday 24 May 2013

Changes coming to Ontario?

Are there going to be changes to the way Ontario has teams advance to provincials?

Curlers have told me that Ontario should take a long hard look at how teams advance to procinals.

A meeting was held yesterday at Annandale Golf & Curling Club, Thursday to discuss the Scotties Tournament of Hearts for 2014-15 and beyond.

The OCA asked female curlers to come with viable options viable options for determining the team to represent the OCA at the Canadian Championship. 

A meeting and having discussions about it is a good start.

Currently, the system is set up so that  a team can sign up at their club and make it all the way to the provincial finals. Ontario is divided into 16 zones. Once a team wins their zones they go to one of four regionals. After a regional the top two teams go to provincials.

The playdown method works on paper, but there is still a few glitches. Many zones don't have a lot of teams come out, or just a couple come out for spots.

I am a big fan of the movie Hoosiers. It's about a small high school in Indiana that makes it to the state finals in the 1950s. Everyone loves the underdog story about how any high school can take on the big boys and win.

I would love to see a rag-tag bunch of curlers rise up from zones and make it to provincials to take on John Epping and Glenn Howard's teams. However, even Indiana changed their playdown system eventually.

Maybe it's time to eliminate Zones and just have teams advance to regionals. Also it would be nice to see teams advance from the Ontario Curling Tour. It gives them some motivation to go on the OCT and do well with more at stake other than money.


Wednesday 1 May 2013

John Morris heads west...further west

John Morris

Looks like rumours of John Morris heading to British Columbia to team up with Jim Cotter are bang on. It was announced that Morris is heading to BC. At the very least it should be a very competitive team.

It will be interesting to see what becomes of Jason Gunnlaugson. Doesn't it seem like it was just a few years ago that he was the next big thing in curling, with his heater and subsequent move to Russia.

Morris and Cotter will be teaming up to play in the Capital One Road to the Roar pre-trials being held in Morris' former back yard of Kitchener in November.

Here is all the info from CCA: Read all about it here...or below

Interesting note: Just two of the teams are from east of Ottawa.

Twenty-four teams will be looking to take a step closer to the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia, when the 2013 Capital One Road to the Roar Pre-Trials, presented by Monsanto, get underway on Nov. 5 at the Memorial Auditorium Complex in Kitchener, Ont.


Tim Hortons Brier champion Brad Jacobs will be playing in the 2013 Capital One Road to the Roar Pre-Trials in Kitchener, Ont. (Photo, CCA/Michael Burns)
Twelve teams of each gender will play off for two berths into the Tim Hortons Roar of the Rings Canadian Curling Trials, presented by Monsanto, Dec. 1 to 8 at the MTS Centre in Winnipeg. The Trials will decide Canada’s teams to compete for Olympic gold in Sochi.
Teams qualified for the Road to the Roar through the Canadian Curling Association’s Canadian Team Ranking System. Here is the list of teams:
Men
Brad Jacobs, Sault Ste.  Marie, Ont.
Brad Gushue, St. John’s, Nfld.
Mark Kean, Toronto
Jim Cotter, Kelowna, B.C.
Steve Laycock, Saskatoon
Joe Frans, Bradford, Ont.
Jean-Michel Ménard, St-Romuald, Que.
Greg Balsdon, Toronto
Rob Fowler, Brandon, Man.
Bryan Cochrane, Ottawa
Jake Higgs, Harriston, Ont.
Rob Rumfeldt, Guelph, Ont.


Women
Shannon Kleibrink, Calgary
Laura Crocker, Edmonton
Renee Sonnenberg, Grande Prairie, Alta. (Note: This berth was originally won by Kim Schneider, but the team declined it)
Cheryl Bernard, Calgary
Crystal Webster, Calgary
Amber Holland, Regina
Val Sweeting, Edmonton
Kelly Scott, Kelowna, B.C.
Cathy Auld, Mississauga, Ont.
Tracy Horgan, Sudbury, Ont.
Barb Spencer, Winnipeg
Krista McCarville, Thunder Bay, Ont. (Note: This berth was originally won by Cathy Overton-Clapham, but the team declined it)


In addition to being officially named as a competing team in the Road to the Roar, Cotter’s team also announced on Wednesday that it has added 2010 Olympic gold-medallist John Morris to its lineup for the 2013-14 season.
The format for the Pre-Trials will see teams play a modified triple-knockout draw leading to a four-team playoff. One playoff qualifier will come out of the A-event, one from the B-event and two from the C-event. The A- and B-event qualifiers will meet in the playoffs, with the winner advancing to the Tim Hortons Roar of the Rings.
The two C-event qualifiers, meanwhile, will meet in the playoffs, with the winner advancing to play against the loser of the A-B game. The winner earns the other Tim Hortons Roar of the Rings berth.
For more information on the 2013 Capital One Road to the Roar Pre-Trials, go to: www.curling.ca/roadtotheroar/.
To purchase tickets, go to: www.curling.ca/tickets/.

About Me

southwestern Ontario, Canada
I am a curling junkie. Wanted to create one spot to bring fans of the roaring game together, for information, news and thoughts about curling.