Houston athletes are currently preparing for the B.C. Winter Games, which will be held in Kamloops next week.
One of these athletes is 12-year-old Eryn Czirfusz, who has been curling since she was in Grade 3.
“I’m really excited to go,” she told the Houston Today. “Right now curling is like my number one priority.”
Since Houston did not have a girls team trying out for the B.C. Winter Games, Czirfusz joined a team based in Kitimat.
“We’ve been travelling to Kitimat a lot lately to practice with the team,” she said.
“They are an amazing group of girls,” said her mother Maureen.
The Kitimat team has recently made it through the B.C. Winter Games tryouts.
Eryn has been training since July 2017 for the 2018 B.C. Winter Games. Since the Houston juniors curling club does not run all year, she has been curling with the men’s curling club and a mixed team in Houston during the week to get as much ice time as she can in.
Then on weekends she travels to Kitimat to train with her fellow junior teammates, working on sweeping drills and their leg drives, where the athletes push out of the hack and maintain their balance and control when delivering the curling rock.
Although Eryn is still a young athlete, she’s already learned about the importance of staying grounded and focused on the experience.
“Our expectation is that we’re not looking to go straight into the games and win everything; we’re going for the experience and to have fun,” she said. “I think it’s more about just having fun doing it, not doing it to win.”
Several Houston ringette players will also be going to Kamloops for the B.C. Winter Games. The 11 ringette players are both from Houston’s U14 and U16 teams.
“They’re really excited because the B.C. Winter Games you only get to do once in a lifetime; it’s not something you can do again next year,” said Jennifer Williams, president of the Houston Ringette Association. “It’s a phenomenal experience for these girls and it puts them in touch with the rest of the province.; they get to play against teams they’ve never played before.”
The Houston ringette teams have had a busy season so far, competing in places such as Quesnel and Richmond.
The U14 team has recently won all four games at the Goldpan tournament in Quesnel. The team has also recently travelled to Richmond to take part in the annual West Coast Classic, winning two games and losing two.
The B.C. Winter Games bring together British Columbia’s best emerging high performance athletes, trained coaches, and certified officials for four days of competition. The event will include 1519 athletes from across B.C. in 19 different sports.
