You can add the name of another local curling team having a banner year.
Punching their ticket to the BC High School Curling Championships in Dawson Creek, was the Ballenas team of skip Christine Patterson, third Emma Lamperson, second Emily Smith and lead Lauren McIntosh.
Co-coaching the girls at regionals was Qualicum Beach’s Ann Fyfe, a longtime member of the Qualicum and District Curling Club.
She said the girls honed their game curling in the local junior league as well as the Sunday night adult novice league. Fyfe has been helping guide the girls this year along with Irene Creally. Shelagh Lamperson has been helping the cause as team manager.
The team was representing Ballenas Secondary School but two of the girls — Smith and McIntosh — are in Grade 8 and their final year at Oceanside Middle School.
This is not the first time this district has sent a team to the regionals to compete, “but this is the first time they’ve won the regionals,” said the coach.
The 2012 BC High School regionals were played out at Juan de Fuca Curling Club Feb. 4-5. Fyfe said there were originally six teams scheduled but in the end only one other team showed up, and they made the trip from Powell River, which set the table for a best of three.
The Whaler girls won their first game handily, and were leading the second game but ended up losing by one. In the third, the locals dominated.
“Wonderful group of girls,” Fyfe said, and agreed, “it was exciting. The other team fought back and gave it their best, but our girls were just so strong.”
Fyfe said she wasn’t surprised the girls did well.
“They’ve been improving all year,” she said. “They’ve really been working hard, and it’s paying off.”
The girls have been busy fundraising for their next trip and the local Rotary club has stepped up. Anyone else in a position to help the team can e-mail Shelagh at slamperson@shaw.ca.
