A trio of local children will be representing Ontario at the upcoming Curling Canada’s Hit Draw Tap Championship.
Reagan McKay, 8, Colin McKay, 10 and Aiden Clogg, 8, will be headed to Kingston in March to compete in their respective age categories at the Tim Horton’s Brier.
According to Colin, it took several weeks of qualifying competitions to make it to the championship.
"It's a skills competition, you throw five of each skill. First, you do it at your [local] club. Then the top 10 in your province, go to the provincials, this year it was in Cornwall. The winners of that get to go to the national championship," he explained.
Siblings Reagan and Colin have both been curling for a little less than half of their lives. This marks the third trip to the national competition for Colin while Raegan will be making her debut.
"This is my first time going there and it's really exciting for me," she said.
The three will be competing individually against dozens of kids ages six to 13 from across Canada. They said it's an honour to play the game they love of a national stage.
"It's pretty special to be going to the nationals," said Colin. "To be actually competing to be the best in the country for our age group."
All three kids will spend the next few weeks practicing for the competition. Colin and Raegan's dad Matt McKay is also an avid curler at the Chatham Granite Club. He said club members, as well as the community, have shown tremendous support towards the children and their achievement.
"It's amazing to have the children enjoy the sport so much," Matt said. "To be at the Brier competition, from my past curling experience, there's a lot of friends and family who are very supportive."
The competition takes place on March 8 in Kingston. The results will be posted on the Ontario Curling Association website.
