UNITY -- Unity Curling Club hosted the 2024 SaskMilk U12 and U15 Triples Cup tournaments March 22 to 24. Teams of three came from all over the province for competition and fun. The Reiniger team from Denzil placed in the medals, winning U12 Tier 1 bronze.
Triples curling is a relatively new curling discipline. As the name suggests, curlers compete in teams of three, with each player throwing two rocks. Games consist of three sets of two ends each and a curler must play a different position – lead, middle and skip – in each of those sets.
When a drop in registrations for youth curling in 2021-22 was noticed, CurlSask made an interesting move. They mandated all U-15 bonspiels in the province in 2022-23 be played in the triples format. Ten one-day triples bonspiels were held across the province that season.
This year, to close out the season, triples teams from all over the province headed to Unity to play for the SaskMilk U15 and U12 Triples Cups. The tournament was originally planned for Humboldt but due to some issues at their rink, they had to withdraw and the Unity Curling Club put their name in and were awarded the event.
The Reiniger rink consisted of Hayden Reiniger, Luke Laturnus and Aiden Whittleton and were coached by Carrie and Kyle Reiniger. Winning the U12 SaskMilk Triples Cup were the Sharp Shooters from Muenster, while the Tier 1 silver medals went to the Outlook Hackers.
Also playing in the eight-team U12 bonspiel was Dylan Pool of Unity, along with teammates Maddi Adamson and Nixon Grainger of Kindersley.
On the U15 side, out of the 16 teams attending, it was the Cool Shots from Leader taking home the trophy.
Locals participating in the U15 spiel were the Pool team, made up of Tate Pool, Hunter Ireland and Cole Ducherer, coached by Brenda Pool. While they didn’t place, Brenda said, “The boys played well this weekend against some great teams. Their games were all close and unfortunately the last ends of each game didn’t go in their favour.”
Curlers, coaches and parents came from as far away as Moose Jaw and La Ronge.
