The Kootenay’s Team Medford is looking to rock the house for the 2018/19 season.
Last weekend at the Raymond James Kelowna Double Cash the team played their first competition together as a team.
“It was a great opportunity. We won our first game, really excited and played very well. It was our first game as a team at that level,” said team skip Chris Medford.
After the first game, however, things didn’t go as well.
“In our second game, we lost on the last shot. That team was two junior world champions, the third was a provincial champion so it’s not like we were playing regular curlers. We were playing seasoned veterans,” explained Medford.
Going against the high-level talent was a good way for the team to see where they are personally.
“We wanted to see some success, we wanted to bond as a team and learn together because our main goal is to go to provincials and compete,” said Medford.
“This event was a great opportunity for us to gel together, find out what our strengths and weaknesses are, what we need to work on, what are positives and individual issues.”
Team Medford is also comprised of Steve Tersmette (third), Nathan Small (second) and Jeff Langin (lead).
“We formed it this year, over the summer. We did have a player that left the team, but we were lucky enough to find Nathan, who moved from Ontario to come out here, and he has had a lot of competitive curling experience as well,” said Medford.
For Team Medford they plan to play in as many events as they can so they can continue to succeed.
“We play in as many world tour events, Kootenay events, B.C. tour events and a couple in Alberta in the hopes of making some money, making the community proud and doing well. We are all chasing that preverbal dream of making it on TV one day. Some of these tour events, if we start to play well we might get opportunities to play in those events,” said Medford.
With the start of the season already underway Medford has seen the excitement form already within the team
“I see positives and changes already,” he said. “I see the excitement in the guys. Just hearing the talk and the chatter between us all and the continuous want to improve.”
This weekend the team will be taking part in the Cranbrook Open Cash Spiel against local teams. They plan to attend the Doug Bothamley Memorial Open Cash Spiel in Nelson then the Kootenay Playdown in Castlegar.
“We want to win our zone and represent the Kootenays again, go to provincials, which this year is in Quesnel. So, it would be a long adventure to get to Quesnel … there’s going to be a lot of competitive teams coming from the area, and we hope to win,” said Medford.