If there’s one thing Duncan Silversides and his rink have going for them as they look toward the B.C. under-18 curling championships, it’s big-time game experience.
Silversides, who took up the sport at age 8 at the Juan de Fuca club, was part of a rink that represented B.C. at the junior nationals in 2015. Third Zane Bartlett, a Grand Forks, B.C. native and University of Victoria student, has been a skip most of his young career and led a team in the 2016 B.C. junior playdowns.
Second Ryan Cassidy was part of the Kyle Habkirk rink (with Silversides playing third and fellow West Shore resident Alex Horvath at lead) that lost the B.C. junior final to defending champion Tyler Tardi from Langley a couple of weekends back. But Cassidy won a B.C. title in 2014 playing for skip Cameron DeJong.
Lead Dennis Williams is a Victoria curling academy athlete with B.C. Games experience.
The group, which until recently included Horvath, faces good competition every Tuesday in the Victoria Super League and currently leads the standings.
Silversides was happy with the way the rink played in last weekend’s B.C. U18 qualifier in Nanaimo – the team went 3-0, beating the Brier Pilon rink from Comox Valley in both the A and B finals to earn the Island berth. He looks forward to honing their strategy in the leadup to provincials in Nanaimo, March 16 to 19.
“Our team needs to work on communication and rock placement to get us to the level we’ll need to be to win U18 provincials,” he said. “We’ve got time to work together and develop as a team.”
Cassidy, also playing since his pre-teen days, said the experience of winning seven straight games at junior provincials was a great confidence booster. While this group of four hasn’t played together long, they’ve been aware of each other for quite a while and are really starting to gel with more time as a foursome under their belt.
Ken MacDonald, who coaches the group for the juniors and U18 (formerly juvenile), likes their combination of experience and personalities. Where Silversides is very analytical on and off the ice, MacDonald said, Cassidy, for example, is less of a risk taker but stands fully behind any tactical decision once it’s made.
And he and Williams will form one of the best front ends at the provincials, the coach added.
“I believe that they have a really strong chance at winning the provincial championships,” he said. “There’s a couple or three teams which we know are strong because we saw them at the juniors, including the Tardi team, who will have two of their team members.”
Silversides, Cassidy, Horvath and Bartlett could gain further big-game experience this weekend, as all are expected to be on the spare list for the national junior championships, which get underway Friday in Esquimalt. It’s not unusual for illness to overcome a team member and allow a spare to slot into their place, MacDonald said.
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