ST. PAUL - With the St. Paul Athletics Association (SPAA) junior curling championship bonspiel taking place during a week of extremely cold weather, organizers were nearly forced to reschedule. Instead, they juggled the schedule and after three days of competing for some of the teams, this year's SPAA banners were handed out.
Some of the girls' teams started playing the afternoon of Feb. 21. Then, after pushing back the start of the day by a couple hours due to temperatures that dipped felt colder than -40C, the boys', girls', and mixed teams gathered at the St. Paul Curling Rink on Feb. 22 for a full day of curling.
On the boys' side, there were just two teams entered in this year's SPAA competition, but it would take three games to decide a winner. The FG Miller junior high boys' team would win the first game, but the younger Racette Jr. High boys would make a comeback in the second game, forcing a third game in the double-knock out format. In the third game, it would be the FG Miller boys who came out on top and took this year's banner.
On the girls' side, the championship would go into a third day, and wrap up on Feb. 23, with the two Racette teams going head-to-head in the final match. Winning was the team consisting of Oakland Labrie, Caydence Bohn, Cherie Labrie, and Addison Sadlowski.
Racette would also claim this year's mixed curling banner, defeating the team from Glen Avon School in an exciting final game on Wednesday.
"It was great to see the rink full of young athletes eager to participate in the SPAA championship," said Racette Jr. High School principal and curling coach Andrea Austin. "After only three teams participating last year, we were pleased to see 11 teams participate this year. They are the future of curling in our community."