Emeralde O'Donnell
Snow began to fall as the BC Winter Games continued on Feb. 22, at the Mission Leisure Centre.
During one of the curling matches in the round-robin competition, the Hawes team played against Reese-Hansen, and won.
With a winning score, Everly Royea, Jaymee Lynn, Cailin Cooke, and Dezaray Hawes, definitely earned bragging rights. Coached by Ken McArdle, the New Westminster-based team has only worked together for the season.
“We’ve [been able to] spend so much time together and we’ve made really great friendships that will last forever,” said Lynn.
During the day’s game, they “communicated better than [the night before],” noted Hawes, “[they] had a few key misses, but [they] bounced back really well.”
Hawes, the team skip, now 17, started curling in Grade 5; she had a friend who was in the sport and brought her to his bring-a-friend day.
“I completed that season,” she said, “And I’ve been curling ever since.”
The game itself is not what keeps bringing her back, though.
“I love the whole social aspect, I love that it’s team a game … You learn that … it’s not just about one person, it’s about the whole team,” she explained.
Similar to her teammate, Cooke, playing third, started curling in Grade 6 when her brother brought her to one of his bring-a-friend nights. She “got really into it” when her brother introduced the sport to her and, now 16, has played it since. “I like the team bonding part,” Cooke said, “How there’s only four or five people on a team.”
Due to such a small group setting, the four “became really close … through the experience,” according to Lynn, playing as second. The 15-year-old noted that it had “been a really good experience to compete in the playdowns and go to the BC Winter Games,” but, out of everything in the experience, it was the friendships and bonds that she created that gained most of her favour.
The youngest player, and lead, Royea is 14 and has been playing since she was seven. “I think it was my mom that got me into curling and I just really liked it so I’ve been curling ever since,” she explained.
Sweeping hard and smoothly sliding, the four girls certainly made each 40-pound stone worth it.