There is a first time for everything and sometimes, that first time comes from a vision or something you witness that you know you would like to be a part of and you just need to work towards. As the saying goes: trust the process, your time is coming.
“This is my first time playing at a national event. I was in the spare pool for the Stratford Curling National Championships like two or three years ago. I got to see the atmosphere and everything, but I never actually like played in it. So when I was there, it was really eye-opening to see and it made me want to work harder to try and win one for myself,” said Adam Vincent of the Golden Hawks men’s curling team. He will be competing at the Canadian Junior Curling Championship after qualifying as a member of Team Steep this past weekend at the U21 Ontario Provincial Championships at Annadale Golf and Curling Club.
This came following a big win for Team Steep, defeating Team Mooibroek 8-7 in the championship match, sending them on to Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, the host city for the 2019 New Holland Canadian Junior Championships.
“It’s definitely incredible. We’ve been working at this for pretty much our entire lives, try and go to national championships, so it feels really good that our hard work is paying off,” Vincent said.
What this also means is that for a seventh straight year, Laurier will have at least one athlete compete at these Canadian Junior Championships.
“Since it’s my last year in U21, I think it’s just gonna be very exciting but we have to dial it back and it’s just like a curling event.
“Laurier always has incredible curling athletes like every year, so it’s not a surprise that at least one person is representing Ontario at the national championships for U21.
We have great coaches and a great program so usually there’s at least one person going, so it’s nice to continue the streak.”
Competing at a national level is something that most consider a dream in a plethora of sports.
Letting excitement get to your head can turn that dream into settling for less than expected. Keeping a level head allows for a higher level of focus.
After all, the entire point of competing is to go for the win. “Usually, Ontario’s considered a very hard province to get out of, so whoever wins Ontario is usually expected to probably be top 4 and competing in the championship round and hopefully making the final.
We have pretty high expectations and we definitely wanna represent Ontario well and win a lot of games and try and make that semi-final and then final,” Vincent said.
“Since it’s my last year in U21, I think it’s just gonna be very exciting but we have to dial it back and it’s just like a curling event.
The biggest thing is just to try and perform the best we can and take it one game at a time,” Vincent stated.
With each step of the way to the final coming in the form of each game played leading up, Team Steep will be looking to reach the top. The tournament begins on Jan.19 with the semi-finals and finals being played on Jan. 26.
