Special Olympics BC Prince George hosted the curling qualifier for Region 7-8 where eight teams gathered from Northern BC to see who would move forward to next year’s Special Olympics BC Winter Games held in Kamloops in February and beyond.
At the Prince George Curling Club Saturday morning were teams Fire on Ice, Red Rockets and Ice Kings from Prince George, the Double Takeouts from Fort St. John, the Tornados from Dawson Creek, the Rockers from Quesnel, the Quesnel Fury and Bed Rock from Terrace.
Prince George head coach for Special Olympics curling, Fern Russell, said it’s been so exciting for the participants to finally make it back into play after the pandemic.
Russell has been coaching as long as her son Samuel, 25, has been participating, which is more than 10 years.
“For the athletes we try to get them to play as many sports as they can,” Russell said of the approach for a Special Olympics athlete. “Then when it comes to provincials if they are chosen for different teams then they would have to make a choice.”
The weekend's curling event is one of the biggest meets the Prince George Special Olympic athletes have ever been involved in, Russell noted.
“It’s the start of regionals, provincials, nationals, so it’s the start of big competition,” Russell explained. “Lots of these teams don’t get to play against other teams. We’ve been lucky enough to play against Quesnel but that’s not often. It has been kind of a wonky start to the year with lots of starts and stops so everybody is a little bit nervous but it always turns out to be a great weekend in the end and everybody has a great time reconnecting and just getting back into some competition.”
