by Eric Welsh
Contributor, Black Press
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Ryan Cassidy’s team wants to stand out on the scoreboard, but until then they’re happy making a fashion statement.
It was easy to see the Vancouver Island–Central Coast foursome in Friday morning’s first boys curling draw. Wearing crazy yellow/blue/white swirly pattern pants, you could lift the roof off the Mission Leisure Centre and see them from the moon.
“I like standing out and having people look at the ice and say, ‘Wow. Look at those guys,'” Cassidy explained.
But once the rocks started flying, they did all their talking on the ice, taking an 8-3 decision over Dustin Withey’s Cariboo–North East rink.
The teams were tied 1-1 through four ends. Cassidy’s team delivered three in the fifth and stole three more in the sixth to blow it open.
“The first four ends I had trouble with my draws, so me and Alex (Horvath, third) switched our rocks up,” Cassidy explained. “I made two really good draws in the fifth, and I think that really swung the momentum. I’m happy that we didn’t get discouraged when things weren’t working well early. We just kept going.”
For the afternoon and a match against Tyler Tardi’s Fraser Valley rink, Cassidy has one item on the fix-it list.
“When we’re sweeping we just have to look up a bit more for the weight,” he said. “The ice is different than it was Thursday, a bit slower. And some of the rocks are mismatched, some fast and some slow. It’s hard to get a read on it.”
