Sioux Lookout hosts NOCA Senior West Qualifier curling tournament

Jesse Bonello - Staff Writer

The Sioux Lookout Golf & Curling Club hosted the Northern Ontario Curling Association (NOCA) Senior West Qualifier curling event from Dec. 14-16.

The qualifier featured six teams from northern Ontario looking to qualify for the Provincial tournament at the Port Arthur Curling Club in January. The teams were team Warkentin from Keewatin, team Jackson from Port Arthur, team Phytila from Port Arthur, team Maarup from Port Arthur, team Hackner from Fort William, and team Davies from Sioux Lookout.

Team Davies included local players John Davies, John Cummine, Jon Bailey, Glen Poirier, and Garth Hyslop.

The top three teams qualified. Team Hackner, which featured former National Champion and nine-time Brier Cup player Al Hackner, team Warkentin, and team Maarup qualified and finished the tournament with the top-three records.

Mayor Doug Lawrance, who attended and spoke at the tournaments’ opening ceremonies, shared that hosting an event like this is exciting for our curling community, which works hard to be successful in Sioux Lookout.

“It’s very exciting. It’s very special too because not every community has managed to keep their curling rink going. The group of volunteers here has really stepped up to keep curling going here. It’s important for all age groups…It’s important to have that kind of variety in the community,” said Lawrance.

Club volunteer Muriel Anderson shared that the club has hosted these types of events before, but this one was the first in recent years.

“It’s not new to our club but there hasn’t been one like this in a few years, so it was good to have it here this year,” she said.

The tournament games were open to the public and Anderson shared that some took advantage to watch these high-level curlers.

“There were a fair number of people. They were mostly curlers, family members or relatives, but there were times where there were quite a few people in the club, which was good to see,” she concluded.

To stay up to date on curling in the area, see the Sioux Lookout Golf & Curling Club page on Facebook.