Wearing the Canadian maple leaf and representing your country is an opportunity that many dream about, yet few live. Laurier students Matt Mapletoft and Laura Crocker, however, will be among those honoured few.
The two varsity curlers won the menโs and womenโs titles respectively at the Canadian Junior Curling Championships last weekend in Sorrel, Quebec.
Mapletoft and Crocker represented their home province of Ontario and will now represent their country at the World Junior Championships in Films, Switzerland in March.
Mapletoft, having worn the maple leaf last year at the 2009 Winter Universiade, knows that although the pressure will bear down on them, they have to stay grounded to be successful.
โ[You] donโt focus on who youโre representing because โฆ you donโt see the maple leaf on your back until you watch it on TV,โ he said.
โYou have to control the controllables,โ commented Crocker on how difficult it will be to square up against the best in the world and not crack under the pressure. โIn the end, itโs really all the same thing: youโre throwing rocks.โ
Despite the strength of the competition they will face in Switzerland, both are confident that having beaten the best junior teams from the best curling nation in the world, they are well equipped to take all the world can throw at them.
โYou have just as hard a time winning the Canadian championships as you do the world championships because our competition is so strong,โ said Crocker.
โBut they do have an advantage โฆ the teams we will be playing against are heavily funded โฆ They have a lot of money put into them by their government; we only get funding at the start of the season โฆ their ice is also wider,โ said Mapletoft.
Regardless of the advantage other countries might have, both Crocker and Mapletoft can find solace knowing they will be making the trip with another Laurier student.
โItโs nice to be able to relate to someone that way when everything begins to get piled on top of you,โ said Crocker.
On top of the performances by Mapletoft and Crocker, Laurierโs womenโs curling team recently represented Canada at the Karuizawa International Curling Championships in Karuizawa, Japan and took home the gold medal.
Mapletoft and Crocker will follow Laurier alumnus John Morris, who led the last Ontario menโs rink to win the Canadian Juniors, and went on to win back-to-back World Championships. In a few weeks, Morris will be taking to the ice in Vancouver, as the third for Kevin Martinโs Olympic team.