Local student sees curling as "chess on ice"

Posted Feb 16, 2012 By Sue Dickens

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Natalie Gagnon, a Grade 11 student at CDHS, was given the opportunity to curl as a

Lori Godden

Natalie Gagnon, a Grade 11 student at CDHS, was given the opportunity to curl as a "spare" and was competing with the rink from the Northwest Territories when they beat Nova Scotia at the Canadian Junior Championships held in Napanee recently.

EMC Sports -Campbellford -Aspiring to one day become a member of the provincial curling team, Grade 11 high school student Natalie Gagnon was given the opportunity to experience some of that excitement at the Junior National Curling tournament held last week in Napanee.

"I was really nervous at first," said Gagnon, who was asked if she could be a "spare" for teams competing with the best of the best of Canadian curlers.

"The Napanee Curling Club has a committee that is responsible for getting a pool of 'spares,'" she told EMC. "They asked me."

Last year Gagnon competed with a team of curlers from the Campbellford District High School (Kawartha League) and made it to Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations (OFSAA).

This year she played with the juniors and her team moved on to compete in the junior regionals against rinks from Brighton and Belleville.

A curler for about nine years, she started with the Little Rock curling program at the local curling club and has been keen about the sport ever since.

"I like curling. It's a great sport to get into. It's fun. I think it's a lot different from other sports. It is very physical what with the sweeping and making shots," she said.

"The whole game is about strategy. It's kind of chess on ice," she added

While in Napanee she got the chance to curl with the rink from the Northwest Territories (NWT).

With her help the NWT team won their first game ever in nationals beating Nova Scotia "who was the team to beat."

"One of the girls hurt her knee so they called me and asked me to play," said Gagnon with excitement. Her position was vice.

Then later in the week she was asked to curl on the team from Saskatchewan.

"I wasn't as nervous because I had already been on the ice. They were really nice," she said.

She was also asked to be ready to curl for the rink from British Columbia but that didn't happen, however, the coach spent some time with her while she sat watching the game.

"They were all really helpful. They made the whole experience better," she said.

Watching the national rinks compete, Gagnon said it was great to be able to participate in curling at that level.

"It was different from what I am used to. They made most of their shots and really well too."

Besides hoping to make it one day to the national level on an Ontario curling team, Gagnon wants to continue with her interest in sports and she already has a career path in mind.

"I wouldn't mind going into physiotherapy or psychology," she said.

The national teams from Alberta won both the junior men's and women's championships and two championship teams will compete for the world titles March 3 until 11 at Ostersund, Sweden.