After capturing the Region 3 finals competition in a stunning last rock scenario, Jessica Lyle and her mixed bantam team from the Coldwater and District Curling Club is heading to the OCA Bantam Mixed Provincial Championships at the Midland Curling Club March 26-29.

The Bracebridge teen nearly rises out of her seat, recalling the game against the McGaugh rink when her team’s skip Scott Brandon needed to make a tight shot against the Chinguacousy Curling Club at the Wiarton Curling Club March 1-2.

“I was so nervous. The shot he had to make, it was hard. He hadn’t been exactly on his game. That weekend he was making shots . . . I just wanted him to make it. The rock just cut, I was right there and the rock just nicked (the other rock). I thought it was done. We just lost it, we’re done,” said Lyle. “It hasn’t really sunk in yet, like it was a good feeling. It’s weird to think I’m going to provincials. It doesn’t seem real yet.”

After trading points with the McGaugh rink it was in the eighth end of the final game when Brandon’s rink was set up well to break the deadlock as he was left with the hammer.

Both teams entered the game undefeated. With three stones left behind guards in the top of the house, Brandon threw a delicate shot that tapped and rolled to the two stones at the back eight-foot area where he left a stone for the win.

His shot was weighted perfectly. Despite grazing the guard, during the curl, on the way by the rock continued its path and took the team to the provincials.

Expectations for the team, who will be wearing their white belts for luck just like Russ Howard does, are practical in the team’s final year of eligibility.

Brandon and vice Abby Millward know Howard’s children through playing at the club and have gotten the team in the habit of the belt-wearing custom before competitions.

Lyle said the team just hopes to win more than they lose from the guaranteed seven games in the upcoming provincial competition.

During the championships she will even be celebrating her 17th birthday on March 28.

Since the team formed only in the summer and started practising at the start of last year, they have gone undefeated in every game they have played.

“This has been a huge thing just being on this team and meeting everybody,” she said.

The lead from Bracebridge is a supportive and quiet member, extending her support during times of greatest stress.

“I’m the quiet one on the team. I don’t like to say a lot on the ice, but I’ll give my two cents’ worth when I think I should, so on the ice I try to stay calm and quiet,” she said.

She said comforting her teammates is just part of being the lead, adding she has played every position.

While she prepares for the provincials, practising every weekend with her mixed team, she is going through tryouts for the junior girls curling team of Coldwater, and is the skip to the Bracebridge and Muskoka Lakes Secondary School Lakers girls curling team competing at the Georgian Bay Secondary Schools Association finals that continue this month.

Lyle curls nearly every day and loves the sport for how each member of the team is individual in being responsible for certain duties while contributing to a team.

It was several years ago when fate seemingly stepped in and showed her the way to her passion when she was left with only curling as a winter elective option offered in Grade 4 at Monck Public School.

“I didn’t want to, but I had nothing else,” she said, remembering seeing it on television.

When her family lived in Milford Bay she further developed her curling skills in Port Carling in the junior league.

She then moved with her family to Bracebridge where she continued playing at the South Muskoka Curling and Golf Club.

Now, when she isn’t on the road competing and practising with her mixed team, she plays every week in the mixed league at the South Muskoka club on Thursdays.

This past year she had the fortune of meeting a variety of top curlers such as Brad Gushue, Howard, Kate Hamer and Mark Nichols, but of all these curlers she cites Colleen Jones as the one she looks up to for her personality and great skill on the sheet.

“She’s different and doesn’t care what people think about her. She just goes out there and loves curling,” she said. “People might think she chews too much gum and wears too much makeup, yells so loud; she doesn’t care because all she likes is curling.”

For Lyle, who doesn’t chew gum or wear lots of makeup, although she did have a team wear plaid skirts once, it’s pretty evident she takes a page out of Jones’ book because there isn’t anything else that matters. And for her, she doesn’t want it any other way.