Shawna Jensen and her Victoria Curling Centre rink are going to be busy young women over the next two months.
Having already earned a berth to the B.C. Scotties women’s curling championship, the 19-year-old skip, who hails from Tsawwassen, now hopes to add a trip to the provincial juniors as well.
The Victoria rink, which includes third Merit Thorsen, second Tatianna Simicic and lead Lauren Legan, are among a number of local teams participating in the Junior Men’s and Women’s Coastal Playdowns starting Friday at the Coquitlam Curling Club.
Eight women’s teams will be vying for six spots, while the odds get a little higher, but are totally manageable among the men with six spots between 12 competing teams.
“Yeah, potentially we could be very busy,” said Jensen, a student at Langara College, who plays in the VCC Select league every Tuesday night and stays overnight on the Island. “I think we have a very good chance. Since most of my team is the team that qualified in women’s [except Legan], we should be pretty solid.
“We feel like we can really pull it off,” added Jensen, who finished third at last year’s junior provincials and won a high school championship, but she is competing with a brand new team in 2013.
The foursome will be among the favourites in the women’s field, along with Nanaimo’s Kalia Van Osch, a finalist at the provincials in 2012.
“We’ve got a pretty high chance,” said Jensen, who could be competing at the B.C. Junior from Dec. 26-31 in Chilliwack, then head to the B.C. Scotties in Prince George, Jan. 6-12.
She also co-ordinates the junior program at Tunnel Town Curling Club in Tsawwassen and plays women’s league there on Monday. She’s on the ferry for Victoria on Tuesday, then back again on Wednesday to run the juniors.
Jensen’s lead, Legan, is from Surrey, while third Thorsen is from Richmond but attends UVic. Simicic is a nurse on the Island.
Also representing Victoria are teams skipped by Maria Coulombe of the Juan de Fuca CC and Brandi Tinkler of the VCC.
A defending B.C. junior champion is among this weekend’s junior men’s field as Sanjay Bowry has a new team.
The 20-year-old UVic political science student is now throwing final stones, while Nolan Reid calls the game at third for their VCC rink. Twins Calvin and Byron Heels play second and lead, respectively.
“It’s a little Ferbey-Nedohin kinda thing,” Bowry, also of the VCC, said with a chuckle of the team’s positioning.
Brier and world champions Randy Ferbey and Dave Nedohin, of Alberta, are one of the first teams to enjoy success with the skip calling the game, but throwing third stones.
“I think we’re ready. We’ve been practising a lot, more practice than play, actually,” said Bowry, whose team has competed in three World Curling Tour events in Cloverdale, Kamloops and Calgary.
“It was a good experience playing against men’s teams.”
The rink will be among the favourites this weekend along with VCC/Juan de Fuca split team skipped by Cameron de Jong, who is looking for a fourth straight berth to provincials. His rink consists of third Ryan Cassidy, second Brook Calibaba and lead Alex Horvath. Calibaba did curl with de Jong in 2012 and Cassidy was his fifth man.
“I’m confident this year,” said de Jong. “We’re all familiar with each other. Our expectations are higher. We started the season slowly, but we’ve been better.”
The team won the recent Esquimalt Junior Cash Spiel and also claimed the D event in an Esquimalt men’s event, both times defeating Paul Henderson’s rink, which also hails from the VCC and is also heading to Coquitlam.
“We’ve been playing well, but we just want to take this shot by shot, get our qualifying spot and go from there,” said Henderson, whose rink consists of third Graeme Turney, second Erik Leisinger and younger brother Timothy Henderson at lead.
And with half the junior men’s field advancing, Henderson likes his chances.
“I would hope so,” he said of earning one of the six spots. “And we can only get better from there.”
Also representing the area are skips Duncan Silversides of the VCC and Connar Croteau of VCC/JDF.
