Attending nationals is old hat for Sudbury curler Clara Dissayanake.
The 19 year-old graduate of Lo-Ellen Park Secondary School and third year Kinesiology major at McMaster University competed at three sets of Canadian Championships (U18 / U20) as a member of Team Toner - and will make her second appearance at the U Sports bonspiel when the McMaster Marauders travel to Lethbridge later this month.
Attending nationals while donning the colours of Team Ontario, however, is anything but familiar for the jovial lead with the newly-formed Dominique Vivier U20 rink.
"I really wanted to try something new in the last years of my junior career," explained Dissayanake. "I wanted to see what the Ontario circuit is like as well."
Both Dissayanake and second Scotia Maltman are new additions to the back-end tandem of Dominique Vivier and Brooklyn Ideson who curled in the U18 bracket primarily last year.
"I've know Scotia from playing against her a lot and she and Brooklyn used to play together - but I've never really interacted all that much with them before this year."
It was a given, then, that finding near-immediate chemistry would be required if the newly configured U20 rink representing the Navan Curling Club (just outside of Ottawa) was to enjoy a successful season.
Check this one off as: mission accomplished.
Team Vivier had already captured a Junior Slam in Dundas earlier this year, following that up with a triumph at the prestigious Canadian Jr Cup (and earning a trip to Switzerland in the process) prior to toppling the Katrina Frlan quartet 5-3 in the Ontario U20 Women's final in Kingston last weekend.
"We all have lots of experience at this level so we know what it takes to put a good team together - and not just on the curling side," said Dissayanake, who had to skip out on the McMaster victory at the OUA Championships in Sudbury this past weekend in order to help Team Vivier earn their spot at the cross-Canada event in two months time (though she will play at university nationals in Alberta).
"We had to have lots of open and honest discussion about what's working and what's not working. We're mature enough to know what to do in those situations, how to overcome the obstacles."
Ironically, this is not the first time Dominique Vivier has been joined at the hip, in a curling sense, with the Sudbury curling scene, having served as second for the Bella Croisier rink that donned the NOCA (Northern Ontario Curling Association) colours at the Canadian U20 Championships in Rouyn-Noranda in March of 2023.
These days, it's pretty much inevitable that substantial cross-connections will exist in the wonderful world of elite competitive curling.
Dissanayake, as noted, attends McMaster University, with her new teammates not all that far away at Wilfrid Laurier University - Waterloo (Vivier and Maltman) and Western University - London (Ideson).
The same holds true for Dissanayake's long-time teammates as siblings Mia and Justine Toner are both part of the Queen's Gaels curling family while Valérie Ouimet has returned to Sudbury, participating in the recent OUA Championships as a member of the Laurentian Voyageurs.
To boot, it will be the foursome of Mia Toner, Dayna Wahl, Justine Toner and Samantha Digiglio that will wear the green and gold of Northern Ontario at the 2025 New Holland Canadian U-20 Curling Championships in Summerside (P.E.I.) from March 22nd to the 30th.
"I always love playing with them and against them," noted Dissayanake of her northern friendships. "I do hope they're in our pool so that we can play them and get to hang out a bit more at nationals."
"I am still very close to the Toners and wish them all the success in the world."
Well, except for maybe March of 2025, if there happens to be an Ontario - Northern Ontario showdown in the Maritimes - where fun, friendship, competition and the reality of new colours, at least for this year, might collide.
