No longer the bridesmaids, the St. Dominic Catholic Secondary School Dragons girls curling team is enjoying their first-ever Muskoka-Parry Sound title won at South Muskoka Curling & Golf Club in Bracebridge recently.
After two consecutive seasons finishing second at the MPS finals, the Dragons captured their first title in the curling program’s three years.
Coach Mark McDonald believes the team’s attitude was the key to this season’s success.
“So many teams we see collapse under the pressure. These guys, when I go to talk to them, they are always smiling and laughing. You wouldn’t know what the score was,” he said.
During the MPS finals, luck was on their side from the start and skill brought home the title to the little school that doesn’t know how to quit.
Skip Maggie Whittaker drew the first game bye, leaving them the chance to face the winner between Parry Sound High School and Bracebridge and Muskoka Lakes Secondary School Lakers. The Lakers won to give the Dragons an opportunity for redemption against their cross-town perennial rival.
The girls of St. Dominic were driven to show how good they are and were further motivated when the Lakers appeared over-confident even before the game started.
The Dragons jumped to an early lead in the first end, 3-0, but the teams were deadlocked midway through the game until a Lakers player drew short, leaving Whittaker an opportunity to steal two and the game. She brought the rock into the house for three points and a 10-7 win.
At the Georgian Bay Secondary Schools Association finals early last week in Cookstown, the Dragons’ luck ended when the two-hour time limit cut their GBSSA finals short.
Down two in the seventh end of the second game, the Dragons were left with one rock left after a takeout. Unfortunately the team was without any more ends to erase the two-point deficit and lost by one point.
“If we had one more end we would have been able to probably get another two points for the win or at least a tie,” McDonald said.
Although most of the team is boisterous, and giggling in stereo, Whittaker uses words sparingly in speech. Her coach believes his skip leaves the actions between the hack and house to speak for themselves. Her ability to remain calm during the stressful moments is what attributed to the team’s success, he said.
In the GBSSA tournament’s first day of competition Robyn Klinkman, who assumed the lead and the second positions when Melissa Bryant was absent due to a school trip, kept an eye on things, ensuring some players didn’t cross the line, or in their case, the hog line — the line 10 metres from the hack (or footholds).
Anna Follis, the team’s vice, couldn’t be more different than her teammate Whittaker. “We’re opposites, but it works really well,” she said. She spoke for the most part during game time discussions, but the final decision was usually deferred to Whittaker, added Follis.
Starting with winter electives in Grade 7, Follis and Whittaker have been curling together for five years, playing for the school the last three. All three know each other in school and while playing at South Muskoka Curling & Golf Club.
Follis said her younger sister, who plays with her and Whittaker at the club, might be a potential team member next year, bolstering an otherwise strong team that will be together for another year.
New addition Melissa Bryant, 17, was added as the lead and fourth member due to her athleticism. She played only her second game ever in the MPS finals.
This team has always seen competition as a fun endeavour and never let the stress get in the way of their enjoyment.
When you’re the smallest school, it’s a great start for an upstart team.
“People think we’re a small school and think we suck. We showed what we had,” Follis said.
Luck might come and go as it did for them this season, but for the Dragons curling team, they have the right stuff to take it all next year, said coach McDonald.