The Ottawa Curling Club, home of the Homan rink that recently placed second at the junior national tournament, and Craig Savill, who has qualified for trials that may lead to the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
Curlers and staff at the Ottawa Curling Club say they like to think the club is one of the best in Canada. The success of two of their athletes early in 2009 has proved them right.
“I still believe the Ottawa Curling Club is the best curling club in the country,” says 30-year-old Craig Savill, Ottawa’s 2008 Curler of the Year
“It produces great players and it has one of the best leagues in the country to curl in during the week.”
Savill, born in Germany, has curled at the club for 13 years and holds the lead position on the Glenn Howard team, which won the Ontario provincials in early February.
Savill, also a world champion in 2007, isn’t the OCC’s only star player, or the only one to credit the club for its support.
“They raised a lot for us and gave us a bunch of parting gifts,” says Rachel Homan, 19, and the skip of Ottawa’s 2008 Female Team of the Year.
Her team, which also includes vice Emma Miskew, and the Kreviazuk sisters: Lynn at lead, and Alyson at second, finished in second place at the 2009 National Junior Women’s Curling Championships in Salmon Arm, B.C.
For a while it looked like the team couldn’t afford the trip to nationals, but the curling club threw a going-away fundraiser to help send them there.
“They also sent e-mails to us throughout the week giving us words of encouragement,” says Homan, who lives in Orleans. “It’s awesome knowing you have all that support.”
Geoff Sheppard, the OCC’s volunteer co-ordinator, spends a lot of time with both Savill and Homan, and credits not just the club’s support, but a great work ethic for the two curlers’ success.
“It’s all about the practice, they’re just on the ice as much as possible and whenever they can get it,” says Sheppard. “We’re so proud of our teams because they work so hard.”
Team unity and family is also one of the club’s priorities, says Sheppard.
Homan’s team has been together for almost five years, and Savill, who used to play with Homan’s older brother Mark, says it is Homan’s love of the game that has made her so successful at such a young age.
“She loves this game and she loves to win,” says Savill. “It sounds textbook but she’s never happy unless she’s winning. Second place is never good enough for her.”
Savill and his team will now prepare for the Tim Horton’s Brier (national championships) set to go in Calgary Mar. 7 to 15.
He also has his eyes on the Olympic trials, which run in Prince George, B.C., in December. His team earned one of the first berths in the bonspiel by dominating the Canadian professional curling circuit.
Homan’s team is still searching for a berth, but Homan says she’s confident they’ll be there.
“Right now we’re sitting in that last spot and it all depends on how everyone does at the Players Championship in April,” she says. “We think we’re going to get it.”
That tournament, which will go in Grande Prairie, Alta., will feature some of Canada’s top curlers and many of the final trial spots will be decided there.
Sheppard says the club would be ecstatic to have both Savill and the Homan team at the trials.
Sending five curlers to the Olympics would be an all-time feat.