Carberry product Braden Calvert and his Deer Lodge team are set to begin the Canadian Junior Curling Championships in Liverpool, Nova Scotia this weekend.
Calvert claimed the provincial title on December 31st, playing the role of giant-killer by knocking off the defending Provincial and Canadian champion Matt Dunstone in the final.
"We set it as our goal at the start of the year and we just played great at Provincials," said Calvert, "We couldn’t be happier to be representing Manitoba in Nova Scotia this week."
Calvert and his team of Kyle Kurz, Lucas Van Den Bosch and Brendan Wilson were put together at the start of the year, with Calvert being a newcomer to Winnipeg as he moved to the Manitoba capital to study agriculture at the University of Manitoba.
"We curled against each other the past two years so we kind of knew each other already," said Calvert, "We meshed right away, we just became good friends and really got along good on the ice."
Calvert goes into the Championship as a rookie skip but the 18-year old has been seeking a lot of advice as he prepares for his first Canadian Championship.
"They’re just saying to take it one game at a time and not look to far down the road," said Calvert, who won the Provincial High School title in 2013, "Just staying in the moment is probably the key."
Manitoba is in a preliminary pool with Ontario, Saskatchewan, Quebec, Northern Ontario, Newfoundland & Labrador and Nunavet with Calvert’s first game against Nunavet on Saturday morning.
After the round-robin in Pool A, the top four teams from each pool move on into the championship pool, with each team playing three more round-robin games against the teams from the opposite pool.
The top three of the championship pool then advance to the playoff round, with the semifinal and final to be played January 26th.
Meaghan Brezden of the Granite Curling Club is Manitoba’s representation for the Junior Women’s Championship.
The winners will then carry Canada’s colours at the 2014 World Juniors, Feb. 26-March 5 in Flims, Switzerland.
One Game at a time for Carberry’s Calvert
By Bruce Luebke
Jan 16, 2014 | 11:57 AM