St. Paul Regional High School brought home two of the tree St. Paul Athletics Association curling banners over a perfect weekend at the St. Paul Curling Rink, with Two Hills Schools taking home the third banner.
“This past weekend was great,” says Pam Skoreyko, the coach of the St. Paul Regional girls’ team that took first place. “The girls really came together as a team. They have worked hard in the pre-season practicing one to two times a week, but game play was limited.”
Skoreyko explains that all of the Regional Saints teams play in the community leagues, but the level of competition is very different when comparing league versus high school play downs.
“All of the girls came to the team with great skill, but the competitive culture of the team wasn't established as a whole. This year, we had two new girls entering the high school play downs and two with past experience. They all surpassed my expectations of their commitment to winning and achieving gold at SPAA,” says the proud coach.
She added, “This weekend, they proved that working together and communicating as a team can put you far and above the others. They worked so well with one another in communication and overall physical effort. Curling is a sport that physically is exhausting especially, game after game.”
Skoreyko said that Jamie Hall, the team’s skip, kept a calm and cool composure throughout all of the games. In the last game, she was on fire, making crucial shots to help win the game.
Kaylee Kotowich, the team’s third, was the glue to the team this past weekend. She communicated to the front end and helped Hall analyze the dynamics of the game in various situations, says the coach.
Both Kelsey Kurek and Abby Zieverink, the team’s lead and second, showed great skill and physical effort as the “work horses” of the team, sweeping many rocks to hold the line or get the rock where it needed to be.
“Our last game was played against New Myrnam High School. The girls went into to the game confident and ready. They had just played Myrnam and needed a win to ensure the gold. They started off strong and their success continued from there,” says Skoreyko.
New Myrnam School was this year’s host of SPAA.
Regional also grabbed gold on the men’s side.
The men’s team was a very strong team, says Skoreyko, who didn’t coach the team but watched them play and followed their season.
Their skip and third, Devon Bailey and Cody Doucet, have a lot of experience with competitive curling, she said. Their second and lead, Jacob Martin and Branden Foote, have shown great development with the skill and physical effort, added Skoreyko.
The men's team had a long day of curling back-to-back.
“I believe they played five games in one day. That's 40 ends of curling and 320 rocks thrown,” says Skoreyko. “They truly persevered. Their final game against Glendon was a success. They too brought home the gold and the banner.”
On the mixed side, it was Two Hills School that would take the banner in the finals.
Zones curling will be held in Lamont on Feb. 21 and 22, with a number of local teams heading to the competition.
