Canadian Championship Teams - UPDATE

Hi everyone, sorry for the last day or so but I and my family got hit with the nasty flu bug going around and I was unable to update the site.

As we stated the other day; The Wheechair Curling Blog along with the Host committee and the CCA will be providing enhanced coverage of the 2012 Canadian National Championship in Thunder Bay in just 11 days times. We will provide live scores, blog coverage and a few photos. Along with this coverage live webstreaming of selcted games will be occuring. The boradcast team for the Wheelchair curling blog 2 will be Trevor Kerr, former team equipment manager for Team Canada and myself. SO to answer the emails and comment questions; Yes I will be attending the nationals this year.

In order to answer a few emails and questions surrounding who will be playing on what team this year we popped on over to the CCA's championship website at 2012 Nationals and had a look at the registered teams today.

A few surprise hit us and we have provided a bit of a break down, along with a photo below. What are the surprises? Well the highlights go like this;

* New Northern Ontario Team - Carl Levesque and the gruop make it to the big show for the first time, defeating Wayne Ficek, after Ficek loses Mark Wherrett to Manitoba.

Fort William CC, Thunder Bay
Skip: Carl Levesque
Third: Rick Bell
Second: Mel Prairie
Lead: Sharon LaFroye
Alternate: Doug Dean
Coach: David Kawahara

*Team Newfoundland & Labrador - upoon review we notice that long time third for female skip Joanne MacDonald and team Canada prospect -Darlene Jackman is missing from the team. Former second Felix Green now moves to third with alternate, Celilia Carroll moving into second.

RE/MAX Centre, St. John’s
Skip: Joanne MacDonald
Second: Cecilia Carroll
Coach: Leslie Anne Walsh
Third: Felix Green
Lead: Lanie Woodfine

* Host Team Northern Ontario - This team is a last minute rebirth opportunity for for the NOCA. We had reported that Mike Fitzgerald had a group of players ready to attend nationals but a last minute withdrawal of a female player has seen the hope for a full nationals have to wait at least 1 more year. Team Prud'homme gave Team Levesque all they could handle during the the NOCA championships so watch out what happens.

Sudbury CC
Skip: Rick Prud’homme
Third: Sarah Lashbrook
Second: Dennis Duclos
Lead: Gino Sonego
Alternate: Linda Kontunen (Not Shown)
Coach: Norm Gervais

*New Team Nova Scotia - after years in the shadows of Mike Fitzgerald and his crew, Richard Brown upset Team Rutt this year after Mike moved to New Brunswick. This untested team will have their hands full. .

Lakeshore CC, Lower Sackville
Skip: Richard Brown
Third: Terry Cousineau
Second: Steve Parfitt
Lead: Deborah Earle
5th: Trendal Hubley-Bolivar
Coach: Bill Fletcher

* Team Quebec - This team will be the one to watch and has to be favoured to win. During this year they have caught the attention of all teams they have played against including a few international ones.

Équipe Québec - cette équipe sera la pour regarder et doit être privilégiée gagner. Au cours de cette année, ils ont attiré l'attention de toutes les équipes, qu'ils ont joué contre dont quelques uns internationales.

Club de curling Magog
Skip: Benoit Lessard
Third: Carl Marquis
Second: Sebastien Boisvert
Lead: Johanne Daly
Alternate: Denis Grenier
Coach: Germain Tremblay

* Team Ontario - After moving from Alberta to London, Ontario, Coach Ernie Comerford has worked to bring this region back to the top. Mark Ideson will be with out his regular third who is now Katie Paialunga from Ottawa.  This team won the Ontario champisonship easy over Team Rees but then lost to Team Gregory at the Ontario Winter games in Hunstville. Let's see if they can get back into winning form.

Ilderton CC
Skip: Mark Ideson
Third: Katie Paialunga
Second: Tony Reynen
Lead: Shannon Wilcox
Alternate: Jacqui Kinahan
Coach: Ernie Comerford

* Team Manitoba - One of the big surprises this year was when long time skip Chris Sobkowicz decided to take a year off after not being selected to the playing rotation of Team Canada for worlds. Also, the placement of  Mark Wherrett former Northern Ontario third for Wayne Ficek should be a natural fit for this defending 2011 championships team. Will the move of Dennis Thiessen have any effect?

Assiniboine CC, Winnipeg
Skip: Dennis Thiessen
Third: Mark Wherrett
Second: Melissa Lecuyer
Lead: George Horning
Alternate: Don Kalinsky
Coach: Rob Lamb

Team Saskatchewan - Darwin Bender and his crew return to the nationals with aspirtations of moving up in the field this year. Of all the teams at nationals this year, this team is the one with the littlest amount of movement or news about them.

Callie CC, Regina
Skip: Darwin Bender
Third: Gil Dash
Second: Marie Wright
Lead: Larry Schrader
Alternate:
Coach: Lorraine Arguin
Coach: Bob Capp

* Team Alberta - This has to be the other hands on favourite of the tournament for this year. 7 times Bruno and his rat pack have come to the show and this year shows no changes. Also, Bruno has 2 active memebers of the Team Canada crew fresh off of worlds in Jack and Anne; not to mention his own time as a memeber of TC. We also see Bridget Wilson return to the pack.

Calgary CC
Coach: Andy Jones
Lead: Anne Hibberd
Second: Martin Purvis
Third: Jack Smart
Skip: Bruno Yizek
Alternate: Bridget Wilson (not shown)

*Team British Columbia - So this is the team that everyone seems to want to know about. In the picture submission you will see, TC lead Sonja Guadet but in the listing we see that her name has been removed. Her replace seems to be Cormack Second Allison Duddy. We also see former TC member and 2006 Gold medal third Gerry Austgarden return to play third at nationals after playing second at provinicals. This is combined with spectulation surrounding Darryl Nieghbours and a "medical condition" which developed at Worlds. This team was the come back team of provinicals after stealing wins out from Gray Cormack who seemed to have both games in hand, only to give up that lead and see TC third and now provinical skip Neighbour come back.

We received many emails and comments regarding Sonja and her attendance at nationals and to answer those questions this is the best we can do. WE DON'T KNOW.  Sonja was a member of the winning team and thus has right to attend however based on the website and the registration it now seems she will not be attending. We will all have to wait and see.

Nanaimo Curling Centre
Skip: Darryl Neighbour
Third: Gerry Austgarden
Second: Ellis Tull
Lead: Corinne Jensen
Alternate: Allison Duddy
Coach: Karen Watson

So there you have it folks, the 10. who will win and in what order, well let's hear your thoughts. Send in your thoughts and top 3 - winner will be selected from all correct entries to win either a $25 Timmy's gift card, $25 Visa gift card or Starbucks gift card - the one no one won from worlds.

Get those entires in!