Two young Salmon Arm curling teams are raising funds to represent the city and the Shuswap at the upcoming Under 18 Canadian Curling Championships next month.
Team Blaeser will be representing B.C. at the championship tournament in Timmins, Ont. Feb. 3 to 12, 2023. Team Blaeser is made up of brothers Kaiden and Nolan Beck, Nolan Blaeser, Koen Hampshire and coach Dale Hofer.
Kaiden Beck is coming off a win with Salmon Arm Secondary Team Sullivan at the Thompson-Okanagan Regional High School Curling Playdowns in Kamloops. That high school team will be competing against other provinces in Terrace, B.C. Feb. 22 to 25.
Nolan’s team in the regionals will also be competing provincially, and the brothers also qualified for the Curl BC U18 team that is now fundraising for their shot at a national trophy.
READ MORE: Salmon Arm high school curling teams compete for regional champion title
Team Blaeser will also be competing in the U21 BC Curling Provincial Championships in Duncan, B.C. Jan. 24 to 29, hoping to win provincially at that level and move on to represent B.C. at the Canadian Nationals in Quebec in March.
Team Blaeser has set up a GoFundMe to ask for the public’s help with donations for their upcoming trip. Money raised will be used to send the team to Ontario. The tournament lasts 11 days and the estimated cost is around $12,000-$15,000 to send the team, their coach and three groups of parents.
Another local team, representing the Salmon Arm Curling Club and the Port Moody Curling Club, is heading to Timmins, Ont. for the same U18 National competition in February. Team Tam also has a GoFundMe to raise funds for their trip.
Team Tam, coached by Ken Krause and Ken Britz, has skip Adrian Tam, vice Austin Tomlinson, second Ethan Chio and lead Harrison Hrynew. Their GoFundMe page praises the team’s dedication to individual and team practices as well as academics.
The team won silver at the U18 provincial tournament in Richmond, guaranteeing their spot at the upcoming national competition as Team BC2.
READ MORE: Vernon skip bows in B.C. men’s curling semifinal
@willson_becca
rebecca.willson@saobserver.net
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter and subscribe to our daily newsletter.
