After a solid season last year as a team at provincials, the Barkway rink is ready to take on a more challenging task this season.
The DuPont rink of James Barkway, Jonathan Wells, Carson Ackerman and Colton Brown are high school students that are playing with some very veteran and successful curlers in the Original 16 Super League on Wednesday evenings.
The youngest group on the ice at the Moose Jaw Ford Curling Centre is off to a decent start this season with a 2-2 record. Not only is the team playing highly competitive curling, but they are also learning from some great local curlers.
“It have been a very good experience and they are all very good teams. We went up against Lorraine (Arguin) and she has had a lot of success with curling,” explained Wells. “It is a good experience and gets us a lot of playing time too. They are very nice people and very helpful.”
Not only do the other rinks play the Barkway rink like they would any other team out there, but they also give the young team some hints and helpful information throughout the game.
“Lots of them give us help. Some of them just suggest stuff…like you could try this when we are having trouble,” said Ackerman. “You don’t get better playing people worse than you.”
All four curlers go to different schools in Moose Jaw and play against each other in the high school league, but they all play together on their juvenile team that went to provincials last season.
“The competition is so different between the levels. In high school, the competition is where people join for fun and then the more serious crowd. For juveniles, we saw some very good teams and it was a fun time to play,” said Wells.
The boys were somewhat “pushed” into the Super League by their coach, Patrick Ackerman and the rink has enjoyed the experience thus far.
“I think he wanted us to get out of the fun leagues where there is a wide variety of skill and to go into something that would test our skills,” stated Wells. “This is extra practice and we are showing signs of improvements.”
Now that the first half of the season is halfway through, the team is 2-2 and the rink is satisfied with that record.
“We are doing better than I thought we were going to do. I thought we were going to get our butts kicked,” stated Ackerman.
For more on this story, read an upcoming edition of the Times-Herald.
