Team Frlan provincial champions

OSHAWA – The Huntley Curling Club’s (HCC) Team Frlan dominated the Ontario U18 Curling Championship last weekend, going undefeated on their way to conquer the provincial championship.

The 2023 CurlON U18 Men’s and Women’s Championship was held at the Oshawa Golf and Curling Club from Jan. 12 to 15 featuring Ontario’s best young curling teams who all spent the tail end of 2022 qualifying for the provincial championship. On the woman’s side, many of the teams played each other already at the various bonspiels leading up to the championship. Also on the line was a berth to the national championship.

Team Frlan took no prisoners going 6-0 over the three days to bring home the provincial title and earn a trip to Timmins, ON, for the 2023 Curling Canada U18 National Championship Feb. 5 to 11 at the McIntyre Curling Club.

“After going undefeated at the Curl ON U18 Provincial Championships this past weekend at the Oshawa Golf and Curling Club, we are now Team Ontario Number 1,” Team Frlan released in a statement yesterday (Jan. 16). “We are so proud and honoured to be representing Ontario at the Curling Canada 2023 U18 National Championship. Thank you to all the volunteers, ice makers, Curl ON, play by play crew (Perry Marshall and Mary Chilvers) and to everyone else that made the event so successful. Special shout out to our sponsors – without your support and help, this would likely not be possible. To our friends, family members, competitors, and supporters, from the bottom of our hearts, we’d like to thank you all for your incredible support.”

Team Frlan has been playing together for three years and is made up of lead Kanata’s Lauren Norman, second Kanata’s Isabella McLean, vice Carp’s Erika Wainwright and skip Carp’s Katrina Frlan. Team Frlan began as Team LIKE training and competing out of the HCC in the U15 circuit. Last season the team started competing in U18 bonspiels and was the youngest team at the 2022 provincial championship, earning a third-place finish.

This year the team brought on a new coach and has been rolling all season long.

“Thank you to our coach Andy Broder,” Team Frlan said. “The practices, spiels, and the weekly OJCS league games have all paid off and we have reached our goal this season. To the Huntley Curling Club – thank you so much. We receive an incredible amount of ice time from the club, and we are so grateful. To the members and the board members, thank you for supporting us over the past four years. We are so proud to bring a provincial banner to our home club and we promise to represent Ontario very well at nationals. Timmins, here we come.”

We have already reached out to Team Frlan and will have an interview with the provincial champions later this week.

West Carleton Online has covered Team Frlan since they first started competing three years ago and you can find that coverage here.