Siblings Kameron and Kelton Tellier had already experienced all that is incredible from their first ever trip to nationals, attending the Canadian U18 Curling Championship in Ottawa last month, returning home to the clearly more relaxed setting that is high-school curling.

The back-end of the defending city champion Marymount Regals’ rink combined with the duo of Abby Hall and Emily Riddle to run the table in SDSSA regular season play, recording eight straight wins. With the city banner on the line, the talented foursome made it look easy, blanking the Macdonald-Cartier Panthères 6-0 (S-F) and stopping the Champlain Requins 8-2 in the gold medal encounter.

In fact, through the first four games at NOSSA this week in North Bay, including an 8-1 semi-final victory over the Superior Heights Steelhawks in the semis, a push did not appear imminent. The Central Algoma Huskies, however, had other thoughts in mind.

Facing their stiffest test by far, the Regals booked their ticket to the 2024 OFSAA Curling Championships in Kingston (March 20th – 23rd) with a 9-7 victory. “It was a pretty even game,” acknowledged Kameron Tellier. “There were hits and misses from both teams, which kept us on our toes.”

“In high-school curling, we try and keep the shots a little more simple, keep the house clean and make sure there’s a shot by the time we throw our eighth rock.”

Coming off the setting that is a national championship, there is something to be said for getting a chance to let the competitive juices ease off, just a tad. “The atmosphere at NOSSA is pretty chill,” said Tellier. “Everyone is there just to have fun and we met a lot of great people.”

Also in the field were the Champlain Requins girls (Emma Legault, Charlotte Castonguay, Karine Castonguay, Madison Smith, Kaylee Seguin) coached by Melanie Patry.

On the boys side were the teams representing both Collège Notre-Dame Alouettes (city champions) and St Benedict Catholic Secondary School Bears (regular season champions), both of whom were eliminated in semi-final play in North Bay.

The lineup for St Benedict featured Sheamus Blum (skip), Kaiden Brunelle (vice), Konnor Skene (second), Lauren McCandless (lead), Hannah Whitmore (lead) and coach Ron Gould.

Noah Portelance, Noah McCauley, André Patry, Justine Toner, Loic Ouimet and coach Luc Ouimet, crowned city champions a week or so earlier, represented CND at NOSSA.