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Young curlers get up close with provincial junior curlers

Jan 23, 2019 | 4:11 PM

Younger curlers in town have been getting some up close and personal time with some of the teams competing in the Canadian Junior Curling Championship.

The Future Stars Initiative provides a youth curler a chance to spend time with one of the provincial rinks competing in the tournament. The Prince Edward Island’s Junior Women’s rink was paired with a youth from the Melfort Curling Club. Skip Lauren Ferguson told paNOW taking part in the initiative brought things full circle for her.

“It was a new experience, because I know whenever I was younger, I really looked up to the junior curlers and stuff cause I always thought you know I want to be there. Now that I am here, it’s really cool to be able to inspire others,” Ferguson said.

During the team’s time with their future star, Ferguson said they got the chance to take part in a few activities.

“He met with us before our first game and he warmed up with us and we just talked with him about our team and him and his curling and it was pretty fun,” she said.

Ferguson explained growing up in P.E.I there were not a lot of large tournaments which came to the island, so she never got to take part in a similar program. 

“I didn’t really have an opportunity like that,” she said. “Being able to have role models, especially younger ones such as ourselves, I think it’s extremely important.”

Iris Jones, who helps with the junior curling program at the Wakaw Curling said the Future Stars initiative was something they are really supportive of.

“We were excited to bring in four kids from our program who came in to be future stars here and were really excited,” she said.

Currently the Wakaw Curling club has between 15 and 20 kids taking part in the unior program, which Jones said is about an average number when compared with previous years. She added she is optimistic about the future of the sport and the club.   

“I think we’ve got some really good kids that are coming up,” she said.

MichaelJoel.Hansen@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @mjhskcdn