A men’s curling team with a Cloverdale connection hits the rink Sunday for its first game of the 2015 Canada Winter Games.
Selected nearly a year ago to represent B.C. in Prince George, Team Tardi steps onto the ice at 1 p.m against Alberta. A broadcast of the game will be televised at 8 p.m. on TSN2.
Next up, Team BC faces Team PEI on Wednesday, Feb. 18, webcast on sportscanada.tv at 9 a.m. The semis will also be broadcast on TSN2 at 7:30 pm on Thursday, Feb. 19.
Skip Tyler Tardi hails from Cloverdale, while other members come from as far away as Victoria and Fort St. John. Despite the geographic distance between teammates, the team (third Sterling Middleton, second Nicholas Umbach and lead Timothy Henderson) managed to find time to practice and even compete in several bonspiels together.
“At first the fact that we are spread out across the province was a big challenge but we have got used to it now,” Tardi said last month. “We have competed in four spiels and have won three of them and reached the final in the other one, so we’re pleased with that.”
After Sunday’s game, the curlers will then play pool games throughout the week before the knockout stages begin on Thursday, February 19.
Tardi teamed up with Dezaray Hawes of the Royal City Curdling Club to win the recent mixed doubles provincial championship at the Peace Arch Curling Club. Hawes is third on Team Daniels, B.C.’s women’s curling team, who begin their pursuit for gold on Monday, Feb. 23 at the winter games.
Tardi, an up-and-coming curler who attends Lord Tweedsmuir Secondary School, skipped his team to bronze at the 2014 BC Winter Games.
He’s most looking forward to representing his home province at the national games and hopes the crowd will motivate the team to do its best. “Hopefully we’ll be able to bring back the gold and do our province proud,” he said in a recent clip posted to YouTube.
More than 2,400 athletes from the country's 10 provinces and three territories will be competing in 19 sports at the Canada Winter Games, including eight from Surrey.
Tardi and Brooke Ashcroft (target shooting) will compete in Week 1 (Feb. 14-20).
Pin Kuan Ho (badminton), Stephanie Divin (figure skating), Michael Rasmussen (hockey), Shayna Goodwin (snowboard), Michele Garceau (squash) and Seray Sefayi (synchronized swimming) will compete in Week 2 (Feb. 21 to March 1).