After a successful high school curling season in 2023-24, highlighted by all four GKC clubs cooperatively hosting the OFSAA championship with funding support by GKC, 5 GKC teams being represented at the championship, and the Frontenac Secondary School boys being crowned champions, our KASSAA high school curlers were looking forward to the 2024-25 season.
Led by co-convenor Sarah Depew (Teacher Coach from Frontenac Secondary School), and sponsorship by GKC, three weeks of “learn to curl” sessions were made available to KASSAA high schools at Cataraqui. Many schools took advantage of the available ice, allowed new curlers to try the sport and allowed returning players to refresh their skills prior to the official start of the KASSAA winter sports season.
Once the winter sports season began, schools were allocated sheets of ice at Cataraqui on Monday and Tuesday from 3 to 4:30 pm based on the number of curlers and budget of each school. Schools held practices and tryouts for several weeks. Once teams were set, schools participated in three weeks of exhibition games hosted by Cataraqui and Napanee Curling Clubs in boys, girls, and mixed divisions. These exhibition games were also financially supported by GKC and allowed each team to test their skills and strategy.KASSAA championships were held in Napanee with 4 boys teams, 4 girls teams and 8 mixed teams competing in a double knockout format competition over 3 days (February 10, 14, and 21). Seven high schools were represented (Kingston Secondary School - KSS, Frontenac Secondary School - FSS, Napanee District Secondary School - NDSS, LaSalle Secondary School, Regiopolis-Notre Dame Catholic High School - RND, Loyalist Collegiate and Vocational Institute - LCVI, and Ernestown Secondary School.
Three of the high schools (KSS, FSS, and Regi) had Cataraqui members serving as community coaches throughout the season. NDSS also had community coaches from Napanee.
KASSAA Champions and silver medalists were from the following schools:
Boys - Champions - Frontenac, Silver Medalists - Napanee
Girls - Champions - Kingston Secondary, Silver Medalists - Frontenac
Mixed - Champions - Regiopolis-Notre Dame, Silver Medalists - Loyalist Collegiate
Top teams were invited to represent KASSAA at the EOSSAA championships hosted by Deep River and Pembroke February 26 and 27. KASSAA was represented by the boys and girls champions and silver medalists and the mixed champions.
Teams participated in 3 pool play games and then the top 2 teams from each pool crossed over for semifinals.
The EOSSAA results for KASSAA teams were as follows:
The mixed team from RND won gold.
The boys team from FSS won silver.
Both KSS & FSS girls qualified for the semifinals, with the FSS girls winninggold. The FSS girls then went on to compete at OFSAA in Sarnia March 19-22, finishing 4th out of 20 teams at the provincial championship and earning an antique bronze medal. .
Thank you to GKC for your financial support of the KASSAA high school curling program. Thanks are also extended to Cataraqui for hosting 2 days of high school curling each week for the majority of the high school curlers, Napanee for hosting their local high school curlers and the KASSAA championship, and RKCC for making ice available to LaSalle who are unable to participate regularly at Cataraqui on Monday and Tuesday.
Jenn De Groote & Sabena Islam (FSS Community Coach), on behalf of Sarah Depew (KASSAA co-convenor)
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