A 12-team fun spiel will take place Saturday and then that’s it for the 2023-24 season at the Winkler Curling Club.

The ice plant will be turned off early next week.

“It was the first year we didn’t have any equipment breakdowns, so it was a wonderful year,” noted club president Jim Hiebert. “We’re fortunate, we have a very good executive. They’ve been around for a few years, and everybody knows their jobs. It makes my life easier.”

The Winkler Curling Club’s junior program and the Garden Valley Collegiate curling program are in very good hands. 2002 World Junior champion Ross Derksen and a number of volunteers are looking after both.

Hiebert said the junior program has really picked up.

“COVID hurt us really bad because there was no junior program for a couple of years. This year it picked up really good. The 12, 13, 14-year-old group, we kind of lost a bunch of them at that time but they’re coming back now. The junior program is starting to push them into the high school program and the high school program will just keep on improving.”

This season the curling club received a $500 junior development grant from the Bob Picken Legacy Fund. A 15-week grades 5-8 program had 32 curlers. An early season focus on skill development transitioned into alternating practice weeks and game weeks later in the season. The grant will support on-ice equipment upgrades and to allow for develop of innovative ideas like a Triples FunSpiel.

The club hosted the 2015 Provincial Scotties and the 2018 Viterra Championship. Both were massively successful.

Hiebert was asked if the club would consider hosting either of the two CurlManitoba marquee events again.

“Not right now,” Hiebert said. “We had the opportunity to host the 2025 Viterra Championship, but we had to say sorry we won’t have an arena that year.”

The city of Winkler has renovation grants from the federal and provincial governments and work on the Centennial Arena is expected to begin this fall.

Chris Driedger's team captured the Monday League Grand Aggregate championship while Andy Schmidt's team won the Wednesday League Grand Aggregate.

curling_2023Men's Club Champs: Marcus Titchkosky, Andy Schmidt, Devin Rachul, Kyle Peters & Clayton Giesbrecht


 

curling_2023Men's B Champs: Randy Suderman, Rick Suderman, Paul Giesbrecht & James Hildebrand


 

curling_2023Men’s C Champs: Brent Haney, Ken Hildebrand, Derrick Klassen & Rod Wiebe