Girls curling team excited to represent Sioux Lookout at high-level tournaments

Jesse Bonello - Staff Writer

It will be a busy week for members of the Sioux Lookout under-18 girls’ curling team, who are heading off to the Northern Ontario Curling Association (NOCA) provincials tournament from March 4 (today) to 8 in Sault Ste. Marie.
The team will then be heading to Longlac on March 8 to represent Sioux Lookout at the high school level for the North Western Ontario Secondary Schools Athletic Association (NWOSSAA) tournament, giving them an opportunity to earn a spot at the OFSAA provincial tournament taking place In Uxbridge from March 25 to 28.
The teams’ roster features Hailey Goriak (Skip), Shantal Agustin (Vice), Tya Dell (Second), Sofia Espana (Lead), and Clara Hornig (Fifth).
The girls cemented their spot at the NOCA U18 Provincials tournament by defeating Stratton at the U18 West Qualifier, which took place in Fort Frances from Feb. 21 to 23.
“We just went to Fort Frances for the West Qualifiers, which was a last chance to get in. There was only one other team there, so we played a best three-out-of-five series. We won three games to one, so that allowed us to go to Sault Ste. Marie for the provincials,” said Adele Brunton, who has coached the team for the past three years.
At the high school level, the girls went to Kenora for the NorWOSSA curling championships on Feb. 9 and 10. The team earned silver with a 3-1 record, giving them the final spot at the upcoming NWOSSAA tournament.
The team said they’re excited to compete at the NOCA and NWOSSAA tournaments.
“It's very exciting to be able to compete in the higher level tournaments. All of us have worked so hard to get to this point in our curling careers. Even though it might be our last year competing with us five girls, having the opportunity to compete at these tournaments and possibly go even further in both high school and U18 is amazing,” said Tya Dell.
“We are all very excited to be going!... It will be very busy for all of us because we will be missing school, but we are so glad that after three years we finally accomplished our goal of going to provincials and NWOSSAA for our last year. After working so hard the past couple years, and for the whole town and everyone supporting us, we are so grateful. I would just like to thank all of our sponsors as well. They have helped us a lot, and we are so grateful. We finally used our money to get brand new jackets so we could look more professional and I think it has also really helped our confidence. I hope we will do well and hopefully advance,” said Hailey Goriak.
“Getting to the provincials was their goal, so they’re all very excited that they made that goal… Now that we’ve completed that we have to reset our goal. They’ve done well, they’ve worked hard, and they’ve learned a lot. It’s been fun,” said Brunton.
In a post on their Facebook page, Sioux North High School shared, “Congratulations to the girls curling team for their silver medal finish at NorWOSSA. The girls team advances to NWOSSAA in Longlac March 8-10. Good luck girls!!”