Prince George will be a new stop on the B.C. Junior Curling Tour this coming season.
The tour, entering its second year of operation, will hold an event Oct. 7-9 at the Prince George Golf and Curling Club. There will be men's and women's divisions, with players aged 21 and under eligible to compete.
Last year, the BCJCT went no further north than Vernon. Its arrival in northern B.C. is expected to help foster the growth of the game in the region.
"It's huge for us up in the north half of the province," said Doug Dalziel, who coaches a local girls team skipped by Jessie Withey. "The kids up here don't usually get exposed to this level of competition without having to travel to the Lower Mainland and interior - like Kamloops and Kelowna. So hopefully we get lots of good teams coming from the south, some of the higher-end teams that have represented B.C. at nationals and/or worlds in the past."
On the women's side of the tour last year, rinks led by Sarah Daniels (New Westminster) and Corryn Brown (Kamloops) finished in the top two positions. Daniels later beat Brown for the provincial title and fell one win short of national gold. Brown, meanwhile, was the 2013 Canadian champion and played at worlds that year in Sochi, Russia.
In men's tour competition last year, the Tyler Tardi rink topped the standings. Tardi is from Surrey but his team also features Sterling Middleton of Fort St. John. Tardi went on to win the provincial championship and placed third at nationals.
If Prince George's BCJCT event doesn't attract a full contingent of southern-based teams, Dalziel pointed out there would still be a positive spinoff effect.
"If we don't get full entry from tour event teams, maybe teams like Smithers and Fraser Lake and Kitimat and Prince Rupert that probably wouldn't travel as much as we would (in Prince George) have an opportunity to get a look at what these teams do and how they play," he said.
Other 2016-17 tour stops are scheduled for Kelowna (July 8-10), New Westminster (Sept. 23-25), Vernon (Oct. 21-23), Esquimalt (Nov. 11-13) and Abbotsford (Dec. 9-11). An event is also being planned for Invermere in the east Kootenay region.
Aside from Team Withey, one skipped by Prince George's Alyssa Connell will compete on the BCJCT this season. Withey played in one tour event last year and Connell was on the ice for three. In the men's division, there was no P.G. representation last year. However, there are local teams that are eligible, including the James Brown rink.
Another benefit to competing in tour events is the chance to take a direct path to the provincial championships, as the top two teams (women and men) will automatically qualify for the B.C. playdowns.
The BCJCT was formed by a committee last season. The idea originated with Vernon's Jim Cotter, who has made six Brier appearances, including 2014 through 2016. Cotter was once a junior curler himself and now has a daughter, Jaelyn, who plays third for the Winter Harvey rink of Vernon.
Cotter is happy to have Prince George as a new addition to the tour.
"It's fabulous news," said Cotter, who was part of a rink that finished second at the 2014 Brier in Kamloops. "Ideally, we want the tour to be right across the entire province. With this being the second year, it takes time for that to happen.
"It's great for the tour," added Cotter, in reference to Prince George's inclusion. "There are some really good Prince George teams too, so it will enable them to get some good competition as well."
Cotter said the plan all along was to have a Prince George stop and a Kootenay stop on the tour. Here, the organizational groundwork started last year, with help from Dalziel and Tracy Connell.
Ultimately, the formation of the BCJCT is meant to strengthen the game at the grass roots.
"We've got some good things going on in B.C. - we just thought we'd take it to the next level because other provinces have tours," Cotter said. "It's a great game, and it's a game that we really need to grow within our province. With the Olympic carrot out there - the mixed doubles now an Olympic sport (in 2018) and all that - it's a good time to get this rolling."
Cotter considered the inaugural year of the tour to be a huge success.
"You get these kids together and they're competitors on the ice, but, off the ice, they're all really good friends," Cotter said. "That's what's really neat about the tour. They can go to the different events and catch up, keep in touch and watch the points race."
