Team Myrden, made up of four women from the Cowichan Lake area, will be going to Halifax in late November to represent BC in the 2014 Travelers Curling Club Championship. The championship sees club teams from across Canada competing for the title spot.
Team Myrden consists of Diane Myrden (Skip), Tricia Mayea (Third), Kari McKinlay (Second), and Maria Elzinga (Lead).
“This event is formulated for true ‘Club Championship’ teams. The objective is to support the development of curling across Canada,” said Mayea.
She explained how they got to the championship level.
“Team Myrden won the Wednesday night curling league in Lake Cowichan in 2014. This gave us the opportunity to compete in the BC Club Challenge where club champions from across the province play against other club champions from within their region. We won the South Island Region Club Challenge in Nanaimo and from there went on to win the Pacific International Cup (PIC) held in Richmond in April. The Pacific International Cup is the BC Club Championships and we are proud to say that we went undefeated in this tournament. Being the winners of the Pacific International Cup gets us a trip to Halifax to represent BC in a national championship,” says Mayea.
The championship will be held Nov. 24 to Nov. 29 at the Mayflower Curling Club in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Husbands of Elzinga and Myrden will accompany the team to lend support.
Team Myrden says they are “excited and proud” to have this opportunity to represent BC.
“This event puts little Lake Cowichan on the map,” said Maria Elzinga.
According to Mayea, the team has curled together for 10 years.
“(Team Myrden) played against many wonderful teams from across the province making lasting friendships along the way. We are grateful for the opportunity to be travelling across the entire country to do what we love so much. It’s a great feeling knowing that there is a huge reward for all of our hard work and perseverance,” said Mayea on behalf of the team.
Mayea goes on to explain that Travelers Canada is donating all profits from the Travelers Curling Club Championship to Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) so participants in the championship are asked to fundraise for this charity. Team Myrden’s goal is to raise $500.
And the local curling team had a special message for their community.
“Team Myrden would like to thank everyone including the many individuals and businesses who have supported us along the way. We want to extend a big shout out to the Cowichan Rocks Society and all of the awesome curlers from Lake Cowichan we’ve competed against on Wednesday nights over the past 10 years–you guys rock and the support you have shown to our team is amazing. Thank you.”
If you want to watch Team Myrden but can’t make it to Halifax, you can check out the Travelers Curling Club Championship website, where you can watch in action and also see scores and standings made available in real time. The site is curling.ca/travelerscurls/scores-and-standings/live-stream. The semi-final games and the final games will be televised on TSN during the championships in late November.