The Ottawa Curling Club’s Mat Camm is one win away from reaching the final of the national junior men’s curling championships.
Camm, who is representing Ontario with his rink of Scott Mathers, Andrew Hamilton and Scott Howard, is set to take on Newfoundland and Labrador in Sunday’s semifinal at the M&M Meat Shops Canadian junior championships in Calgary.
The winner then plays round-robin leader Saskatchewan in the finals later on Sunday. The tournament champion will represent Canada at the world junior curling championship in Perth, Scotland from March 5 to 13.
In an interview Saturday with Centretown News, Camm says his team is not taking Newfoundland lightly, despite defeating the East Coast rink 9-3 during round-robin play.
“Newfoundland isn’t a slouch. They pretty much tied our record and won a tough tiebreaker,” Camm said. “They’re a really tough team and they’ll be a big challenge for us.”
Skipped by Colin Thomas, Newfoundland went 8-4 in the round robin and defeated New Brunswick 7-5 in Friday’s tiebreaker.
Team Camm cruised through the round robin, going 9-3 and finishing second place behind Braeden Moskowy’s undefeated Saskatchewan rink.
Members of the Ottawa Curling Club say they are not surprised by the team’s success.
“They’ve been so good this year, and so consistent,” says club board member Joe Pavia. “Every time you talk to them, you hear that their sole goal is winning the juniors.”
While Pavia says he thinks Camm can win the tournament, he says curling is a sport where you have to expect the unexpected.
“The rule in curling is anything can happen at any time,” he says. “One shot can change the whole complexion of the game.”
The semi-final match goes Sunday at 12:30 p.m. The final can be seen live on TSN at 7:30 pm.