Nunavut curlers hurry hard ‘for love of the game’ in Ontario

Team Nunavut’s curlers competed in the Canadian Under-18 Curling Championships in Timmins, Ont., this week, but the Iqaluit teens didn’t go there to win.

Team Nunavut girls skip Arianna Atienza delivers a stone on Tuesday afternoon at the Canadian Under-18 Curling Championships in Timmins, Ont. (Photo courtesy of Andrew Denny/Curling Canada)

Instead, they’re playing the long game.

They used this elite southern competition as an opportunity to learn and improve in the lead-up to the Arctic Winter Games in Whitehorse, scheduled for March 8 to 15.

“It’s from losing that you learn how to win,” said boys coach Jeremy Smith, whose team finished with a winless record.

The girls, also winless, embraced the same attitude.

“How we define how we did is not just by wins and losses,” said girls coach Gayle Salter-Kennedy.

Both coaches and the athletes explained that Iqaluit curlers have very little access to ice times for practice compared to their southern counterparts. So the curlers use big tournaments such as this to train and improve.

The girls competed this week with three players instead of four because teammate Aubrey Sheppard could not make the trip to Ontario.

The girls team was made up of Sophia MacDonald, 16; Naja Ejesiak, 16; and skip Arianna Atienza, 17.

The trio lost all six games, falling 2-10 against Alberta and 2-11 against New Brunswick on Monday, 0-9 against Prince Edward Island on Tuesday, 2-8 against Ontario and 1-11 against Nova Scotia on Wednesday, and 4-12 against Quebec on Thursday.

“We can really think of this event as an opportunity to learn and improve our skills,” MacDonald said.

Her teammates have no trouble finding the positive, as well.

“We’ve succeeded at communicating and we’re all very good friends, so we play very well together on a team,” Ejesiak said.

The boys team includes Noah Smith, 16; David Hoyt, 15; Nicholas Smith, 14; and skip Ciaran Robinson, 14.

They lost 4-13 against New Brunswick and 1-14 against Alberta on Sunday, 2-15 against Saskatchewan on Monday, 3-18 against Prince Edward Island on Tuesday, 0-12 against Ontario on Tuesday, and 1-13 against Northern Ontario on Wednesday.

The boys remain positive.

“It’s been pretty fun so far,” Noah Smith said. “It’s a good learning experience.”

For the Nunavut squads, the tournament wraps up Friday with a skills competition.

“They have come a long way,” said Smith, the boys coach.

“They’re here for the love of the game. They’re here for the experience. They’re here to develop and win, potentially, down the road.”