Team Kearns swept to the ‘A’ event title at the Westlock Curling Club Men’s Bonspiel held March 8-10.
Twenty rinks from across Alberta hit the ice, including a few members of the Kevin Martin dynasty, to compete in the club’s final event of the season. Players ranged in age from a few students from R.F. Staples joining a team to seasoned veterans in their 70s.
“It was a great deal of fun curling in Westlock. It’s been almost 20 years since I’ve been out here curling,” said Gary Kearns following his rink’s win. “Great hospitality. We really enjoyed ourselves this year. We’ll absolutely be back next year, we have a title to defend.”
Team Schiller managed to bring home the ‘B’ event title, Team Guelly captured the ‘C’ and Team Gibert claimed the ‘D’.
Club president Paula Clark said with their season officially wrapped they’ll turn their focus to hosting the Pembina Hills Regional District High School Bonspiel March 18 and then the Grade 7 Bonspiel March 21 before preparing to renovate the facility this summer.
After receiving a $92,300 grant and with the Town of Westlock expecting a matching grant, Clark said the plan was to remodel the washrooms to make them more accessible to people with mobility issues.
“We were hoping to go into the change rooms of the old arena, but if that doesn’t happen, we have lots of room to expand into the lobby,” she said. “That’s the first phase, then we’ll work our way upstairs from there.”
Beyond that, Clark said the club was waiting to hear back from Alberta Curling about their bid to host the 2020 Boston Pizza Cup.
“It’s all been good, it was a good wrap-up to our season,” she said. “Since it’s been in the paper, I’ve had people lining up to volunteer for the BP Cup. We’ve had a lot of enthusiasm from that, and if we get it again next year, it can only be a positive.”
