The stars aligned this year for curlers Brooklyn Ideson and Owen Henry.

Then they aligned again.

Friends and clubmates since their earliest days of stepping onto the ice of the Ilderton Curling Club (just north of London), the talented tandem have dabbled with mixed doubles play over the years – as time permitted.

For these two, that last part might be just a tad more challenging than a runback quadruple takeout. Now in their early twenties, Ideson and Henry not only boast extremely impressive curling resumes already, but also show little sign of slowing down.

A fourth year student at Brock University, Owen Henry was a member of the Badgers OUA men’s team this year – something that he looked to squeeze in while also attending (and competing in) the Montana’s Brier for the very first time in Newfoundland a month or so ago.

Playing second on the Jayden King Ontario Tankard championship rink from Tilsonburg, Henry would be one of the youngest curlers on the ice in St John’s, his team posting a 5-3 round robin record and falling to Brad Gushue in the playoffs.

By comparison, Ideson would enjoy perhaps a touch quieter winter on the ice, attending Western University, advancing to the Ontario U20 Championships and following along as her father (Mark) captured Olympic Gold in Italy as part of the Canadian Paralympic curling team.

It’s easy to see why the qualifying requirements and travel demands needed to attend the 2026 U-21 Mixed Doubles World Qualifier in Sudbury last week were no piece of cake to navigate.

That said, the effort was clearly worthwhile as Team Ideson – Henry followed up a 5-2 round robin showing by moving directly through to the final and blasting Bethany Evans and Sahil Dalrymple from Alberta 12-4 in the final Friday afternoon at the Gerry McCrory Sports Complex.

That victory means that Brooklyn Ideson and Owen Henry will represent Canada at the World Junior Mixed Doubles Championship in Edmonton in early May – an event they will most certainly make time for.

“We haven’t been able to play any playdowns together until this year, just because of our busy schedules,” acknowledged Henry. “The stars aligned this year and it was really cool.”

Attending the provincial playdowns in Guelph, the tandem very quickly showcased their somewhat innate team chemistry, right off the hop. “We came out and had a lot of really good games, put a lot of really good shots together, figured out what works for us and brought that to this week,” said Henry.

Not that any of this should come as a great surprise, even for a curling duo who have experienced far more in the four-person game than with this newer tangent in the sport that is rapidly growing in popularity.

“There is a different dynamic to mixed doubles, but we had that pretty much figured out just because we knew each other so well,” stated Ideson, a two-time participant at the Canadian U18 tournament. “Owen and I have been curling together probably since we were five years old.”

“Growing up, we actually played in a mixed doubles league together, just for fun, at our home club. The timing just worked out well for us with this event.”

And while half of the field on hand for last week’s festivities in the Nickel City would bid adieu to northern Ontario over the weekend, no less than eight curlers remained on hand, all participants at the 2026 New Holland Canadian Under-20 Curling Championship – which kicked off Saturday, also in Sudbury.

In fact, both members of the Quebec Mixed Doubles entry of Megan Lafrance and Raphael Tremblay have made a seamless transition over to the Junior Nationals, with both of their rinks off to solid starts in pool play.

In fairness, the Quebec #2 entry of Jolianne Fortin (skip), Emy Lafrance (third), Megan Lafrance (second) and Mégane Fortin (lead) were fully expected to be in contention this week, given the experience the young foursome gained as provincial representatives at the 2026 Scotties Tournament of Hearts in Mississauga at the end of January.

Team Fortin has opened play here with back to back victories and is one of a handful of rinks that folks who know women’s junior curling in Canada are watching closely (which is not to say another crew could not surprise).

Fresh off their U Sports crown captured in February in Regina, the Memorial University (St John’s, Newfoundland) trio of Cailey Locke, Hayley Gushue (daughter of Brad) and Sitaye Penney welcome back lead Sarah Thomas to take a crack at the U20 Championships, improving their record to 2-1 Monday morning with a 9-3 win over Charlotte Wilson from Ontario.

On the men’s side, the Ontario rink skipped by multi-sport talent Evan MacDougall sits as the only team with three straight wins to start, carrying their 3-0 mark into a Monday evening battle with the Thunder Bay based Northern Ontario quartet skipped by Jacob Curtis.

The only other unbeaten men’s rink is the Quebec representatives skipped by the afore-mentioned Raphael Tremblay, looking to pull even with MacDougall and company with a win on Monday afternoon against Nash Sugden of Manitoba.

Play continues all week, with finals set for Saturday at 11:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m.