Myer girls golden at Gore Schoolgirl provincials
Odd numbered years have been extremely fortuitous this decade for the A.N. Myer girls curling program.
The squad, coached by Patty Rodgers and assistant Sean Ford, won Gore Schoolgirl provincial titles in 2015 and 2017 and last weekend, at the Pembroke Curling Club, another Myer rink skipped by Megan Ford added another provincial Gore championship to the school’s impressive on-ice resume.
The team, which included vice Jessica Zheng, second Kate Phillips, lead Abby Zwarun and alternate Fayzeh Abou Ardat, went unbeaten at the championships and pulled off a feat no other Myer championship squad has managed to accomplish. Based on their curling percentages in the round-robin portion of the event, Ford, Zheng and Zwarun were named to the First All-Star Team and Phillips earned Second All-star Team recognition.
“I might have had one or two all-stars, but not the entire team,” Rodgers said. “That shows the strength of the program.”
Myer went 3-0 in the round-robin portion of the tournament with victories over St. Theresa’s (6-2), East Northumberland (8-1) and Haliburton Highlands (10-3). After defeating Ursuline College of Chatham 12-3 in the semifinals, the Ford rink captured the gold medal with an 8-6 victory over North Dundas.
In the championship game, the North Dundas skip conceded the game before Ford threw her final stones.
“When the other skip threw her first stone and it was starting to over curl, I turned to Jessica my vice and said ‘We did it,’ ” Megan Ford said. “It was pretty amazing, it was very exciting for all of us and I am very proud of all the girls.”
It was the perfect ending to a rag to riches story for the rink, which was 0-3 at last year’s Gore provincials. Last year’s pain made this season’s championship possible.
“It got us into the mindset of being in a provincial championship,” Ford said. “We learned from other teams what it takes to make shots and build with each other.”
Ford, who has been curling since joining the Little Rocks program as a youngster, said there was no secret to the team’s success.
“They all work so hard,” she said. “We started last year and built it up. We joined a Thursday night league and worked our butts off.”
There were other factors that also helped.
“Definitely balance helped, in the sense that all of them are very good at their positions, but their work ethic and dedication is very strong,” Rodgers said. “And their athleticism comes into play too because they are able to pick it up fairly quickly.”
Phillips and Zwarun have only been curling for two years and Zheng took up the sport three years ago.
Next on the to do list for the Myer team is to qualify for and do well at the Ontario Federation of Secondary Schools Association championships.
“I would say OFSAA is harder to win but this (Schoolgirl) was hard too,” Ford said.
At last year’s OFSAA championships in Fort Frances, the team went winless.
“We didn’t win any games, but we had a real fun time,” she said. “Last year was our foundation year. This year is our building year.”
The rink should be strong again next year as only Phillips will be lost to graduation.
Rodgers credits the club curlers, who have gone through the Myer program over the past six years, for the program’s run of excellence.
“When you have those kids who are club curlers, they can take that leadership role which helps,” she said. “First- and second-year curlers don’t have the capabilities to be a skip.”
And much likes Myer’s football teams, success breeds more success.
“As we started to have more success, I was able to draw kids in from different teams because I am a phys-ed teacher,” Rodgers said,
Several of the Myer curling recruits were members of Rodgers’ cross country running squads.
