Kimberley’s Haley Farquhar has a long history in junior curling, being a part of the very successful team Buchy for several years. The team made it to provincials every one of their six years together, were six time Kootenay champions and won the high school provincial championship in Delta in 2016.
“I wouldn’t be where I am with out the coaching from Tom Buchy and Dave Toffolo,” Haley said.
Where she is, is curling with a new team out of Delta as she attends school in Vancouver. Team Heather Drexel is headed to the Junior Provincials after winning the coastal play downs.
After her team with Buchy split up last year, Haley was looking to find a team for a few months. Checking out a curling Facebook group, she noted that Heather Drexel was returning from school in Alberta and was looking for a curler to join herself, Hailey Dubois and Elizabeth Bowels.
“We are Team Drexel with Heather at skip, Elizabeth at third, myself at second and Hailey at lead,” Haley said.”This was my first year curling without my old team so I was anxious but excited for the new experience. We practiced a few times all over the place like Maple Ridge, New West, Langley and Delta. The good part of this was to curl on a variety of ice and be able to network with new clubs.”
The team practices once a week and plays Tuesday night ladies league at the Delta Thistle where they are currently undefeated and winning the league.
“We have played in a few ladies spiels like White Rock and Golden Ears. We got second in the B pool and in Langley we got second in the A pool. Our team also competed in the junior tour with five spiels, always getting in the top half of the pool, with our best finish in Vernon, getting third.”
Haley says winning the A pool at the Coastal Play Downs with an undefeated record has put them in a positive state of mind heading into provincials, which began Dec. 27 in Vernon.
Team Drexel is ranked third in the province.
“We will be playing in an intense round robin against seven other teams from different zones around the province,” Haley said. “We have put the hours of work and effort in and hope to do well.”