A rookie curler helped lead the Holy Trinity Academy Knights to their first zone curling championship.
Nic Withrow was an emergency fill-in at lead for the HTA boys rink and was spot on as the Knights trounced the Chestermere Lakers 10-0 in the South Central Zone final Saturday in Chestermere.
“We formed the team about a week and half ago because things changed up,” said skip Eric Hess. “It turned out that only these four boys could go.”
Withrow had been curling for another team, but answered the call when asked to step in the hack to throw lead rocks for Hess.
“This is my first year curling, I started in October,” Withrow said. “As a team, I only had a week and half to work with them (before zones). I was a little nervous, but more pumped up. I was just excited to play.”
Hess said teamwork was the key to overcoming any rookie mistakes by Withrow — which were few and far between.
“We were all in the zone, but I was really impressed with Nic, he curled really, really well,” Hess said. “His guards were right where they needed to be and his draw weight was perfect. We couldn’t have asked for anything more.”
The entire HTA rink was perfect in the final against Chestermere.
After taking one in the opening end, HTA worked like robbers walking into an unguarded bank.
They stole rocks in each of the next four ends and the two teams shook hands after five – giving HTA its first curling banner.
The Knights opened the zones by going 2-1 in the round-robin, beating the Strathmore Spartans 7-1 and Cochrane’s Bow Valley Bobcats 7-6. They then lost to the Lakers 5-2 to close out the round-robin of Friday.
“It was really tiring. We had to curl for something like 6 hours,” said third Quinn Heffron.
Hess took the loss to the Lakers as a learning experience.
“We paid attention to the team (Chestermere) and what their strategy was – what type of shots they like to throw,” the skip said. “I had a feeling we would be meeting them in the final.”
Despite the loss, second Miki Becker was happy with the Knights’ performance.
“We played really well, especially Nic,” Becker said. “He put rocks where they needed to be and we just went behind them. That helped us a lot – especially in the final.”
The Knights advanced to the final by downing Crossfield’s Murdoch High 8-5 in the final Saturday morning.
“We came out swinging and after two ends we were four up and then we kind of gave them a couple back,” Hess said. “After the fourth end we had just given up a couple and were only one up with four to go. We got one back in the fifth and that gave us the momentum.”
HTA then kicked a field goal to go along with the touchdown in beating Chestermere 10-0 in the final.
The Knights now head to Lethbridge for the Alberta Schools Athletic Association championships March 3-4.
