On the weekend of March 11-13, Drumheller Curling Club hosted the Southern Curling Association (SACA) Bantam Curling finals.
Opening ceremonies were held on Saturday, March 12 and Bag Piper David Daly of Drumheller led the 16 teams and their coaches onto the ice. O’Canada was sung by Abby Fooks and the teams were welcomed by Drumheller Curling Club Vice-President Larry Needham.
Local rink Team Buchwitz from Delia, entered the tournament, and were led by skip Devon Buchwitz, 3rd Tyler Hutton, 2nd Tayslyn Bossert and lead Cayden Bossert. They played against Strathmore, Medicine Hat and the Huntington Hills team and these three games resulted in losses. According to coach Jason Reed, “Three members of our rink are new to curling this year.” “They were up against difficult competition, certainly a learning experience.” said Needham.
The SACA gold medals went to Medicine Hat, Team Zeidell, silver to Team Waite of Huntington Hills, Calgary and Bronze went to Team Whitmore from Lethbridge. Needham summed the weekend up, “It was a full weekend, overall very successful. It is great to see that younger players are joining curling. The criteria for Bantam players is 14 years old or younger and many of the teams had curlers as young as eleven. It was a great experience for all the teams.”
