For the first time in a decade, TRU sent two curling teams to the Canada West (CW) Curling Championship. Both the men’s and women’s teams placed within the top three at the tournament.
Despite being newly formed in September, the men’s team immediately made an impact at the tournament. The TRU team knocked off the five-time reigning champions, the Alberta Golden Bears, handing them their first loss at the CW championship since 2019.
The team is comprised of Duncan Silversides (the skip), Coburn Fadden (the lead), Kyron Suah (the second), and Calder Fadden (the third). The four athletes initially started as part of the TRU curling club, but in September, the decision was made to form a team and bring back the university’s men’s curling program for the first time in a decade.
“ I think it’s great for the school to be able to put something like that together again and try to build a program,” said Calder Fadden, a fourth-year business student. Despite the team’s success, they faced some challenges leading up to the CW Championship, having had limited opportunities to compete in games or practices, which led them to rely on communication and individual training to stay successful.
“Even though we couldn’t necessarily practice together or [play] games together, we still played a lot. Myself and Corbin played two or three times a week. I know [Kyron] and Duncan also played two or three times a week on a mixture of different teams.” Calder Fadden said.
As a newly established team, the men were forced to put their best face forward while competing with well-established programs like the University of Alberta and the University of British Columbia. TRU swept the first four games against many nationally ranked teams. They were met with a tough but hard-fought loss in the semi-finals against the Regina Cougars, which sent them to compete for third and fourth.
Although the team won their last game, securing them third place, their efforts were not enough to advance to the USport championship.
”We’re all, as a team, very proud to have been able to represent TRU, proud with the success we had… we put a good face forward for TRU and the future of curling at TRU,” Coburn Fadden said.
The team continues to look towards the future with hopes of creating a strong curling program.
“ We’re hoping to keep the program going and let this year of success show and be the base for future years of success in Curling at TRU,” Calder Fadden said.