Myer boys mine bronze at Gore provincials
When the season started for the A.N. Myer boys curling team, no one was predicting the rink would end up winning a bronze medal at the Gore Schoolboy provincial championships.
Skip Victor Pietrangelo was the only player with any sort of curling pedigree. The Grade 11 student has been curling for three years and was on a team of mostly Grade 12s last season that didn’t advance to the Gore provincials. Second James Harvie curled in 2017-18, but wasn’t on Myer’s competitive team. Vice Davis Gollert hadn’t curled since he was 1o and lead Nick Simmonds and alternate Nathan Koop had never curled before. The three other members of the curling team had also never curled.
“I had two kids with experience and six kids without experience and they ended up going to the Gore provincials and winning the consolation final (bronze-medal game,” coach Gwyn Jackson said.
When asked what made the team special, Jackson said “me” with a laugh, before correcting himself.
“What made them really successful is that Victor is a really smart curler, he played with confidence this year and he’s learning the game better and better all the time.
“Victor is the reason we did so well this year.”
Pietrangelo also had plenty of help at this past weekend’s provincial championships at the Pembroke Curling Club.
“The new guys have been coming along all year and lead Nick Simmonds won Second Team All-Star at the provincials,” Jackson said. “He has become a really good curler.”
The other two newcomers on the rink have been able to pick up curling quickly because of their athleticism. Gollert plays basketball and runs track, and Koop and Simmonds are hockey players.
“I have strong athletes on my team and the two kids who are hockey players, the one thing in curling that is really important is learning balance,” Jackson said. “They didn’t have to learn balance and they were comfortable on the ice.”
The Myer rink went 3-0 at the regional level to advance to the Gore Schoolboy provincial championships
Myer went 2-1 in pool play, opening with wins over Patrick Fogarty (10-5) and Vankleek Hill (7-1), before losing 6-5 to Bishop Allen Academy from Etobicoke.
In the semifinals, the Pietrangelo rink was leading Ursuline College from Chatham 2-1 going into the seventh end and gave up three to fall behind 4-2. Then the Myer rink ran out of rocks in the final end.
In the bronze medal game, Myer defeated Bishop Allen 7-3.
“We are a first-year team with two new guys this year and it was really cool to come into provincials and do that well,” Pietrangelo said. “We didn’t expect it.”
The team was excited when it qualified for the semifinals.
“We realized we were one of the top four teams in Ontario and had a chance to win it all,” Pietrangelo said.
The skip pointed to two factors contributing to the team’s success.
“It was athleticism and a lot of practice,” he said. “We were out here a lot and we work well with each other.”
Getting along as a team was crucial.
‘It’s really important that we all get along, especially for communication on the ice,” Pietrangelo said.
He is excited to see what the team can do this year in its high school season — it won its Niagara Region High School Athletic Association seminal game Tuesday — and next year as well.
“Three of us are in Grade 11 and the other one is in Grade 10 so everyone is back next year,” Pietrangelo said. “Hopefully we can win a title.”
He knows what it will take to get there.
“It was a tight game in the semifinals and, unfortunately, we gave up one big end that made the difference,” Pietrangelo said. “We have to keep practising and getting better.”
A Westlane team, skipped by Daniel Krowchuk and coached by Niall Gardner, also made it to the Gore Schoolboy provincials. The rink, which included vice Ben Rogers, second Indiana Stoakley and lead Niles Cumberland, failed to advance out of pool play. Westlane lost 6-5 to Fellowes High School, the eventual gold medalist, 9-1 to Grand River Collegiate and 8-1 to Ursuline College, the winner of the silver medal.
