Team Hafeli returned the national junior curling championships with a 4-4 record, narrowly missing the playoff round (Image Credit: Contributed)

By Chad Klassen

NATIONAL JUNIOR CURLING

Hafeli rink from Kamloops got the national junior curling bug, hope to return next year

Apr 5, 2022 | 4:39 PM

KAMLOOPS — It was a tough start to the junior nationals for Team Hafeli — dropping their first two games against the eventual finalists — but the team from Kamloops bounced back and finished the championships with a respectable 4-4 record.

“It was definitely disappointing to lose the one we had to win, but ending with a 4-4 record at our first nationals when we’re all fairly young and we have a couple more years is good enough for me. I’m really happy about it,” said skip Holly Hafeli.

Jorja Kopytko added, “I was really impressed with our performance. I thought with all that new experience, sometimes you can have a bit of an off [day], but I thought our team played really well, and anytime we lost a few points or anything like that we were able to keep our heads in the game and keep playing. I was really impressed.”

They were just the fourth Kamloops team to represent B.C. at the junior nationals. Before Hafeli’s appearance, it was Corryn Brown, who won it all in 2013.

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Despite missing the playoffs by one game, the team feels they walked away with a great experience.

“That week was just really good for us,” said Hafeli. “We haven’t played on a national stage before, so we were there for the experience mostly, but the wins were a bonus.”

The experience has the Hafeli rink hungry for more. Most of the team still has three years of eligibility and feels it can represent B.C. again.

“I definitely do,” said Kopytko. “I think having this experience gives us a little bit more [confidence] to help us get there again. We’ll work hard to try and make it there every year.”

Hafeli added, “The reactions going to be a little bigger if we make it back. I remember getting a lot of questions about how downplayed the reaction was when we won our provincials. It’ll be a lot bigger when we win our next one because I want to give back to nationals. We met so many new people and it was awesome.”