Alberta skip hopes to set hometown alight at U Sports curling championships

A curling frenzy is about to begin in Leduc, Alta. as the top university and collegiate curlers from across the country descend on the Alberta town just outside of Edmonton for their respective national championships.

For University of Alberta skip Karsten Sturmay, it is a true homecoming. Sturmay grew up in Leduc and his parent's house is about five minutes from where the games will be played.

CBCSports.ca is streaming select matches from both the university and collegiate championships, beginning Saturday.

• Watch the Canadian university championships here
• Watch the Canadian collegiate championships here

"I threw my first rocks at the Leduc Curling Club so this is going to be a very cool experience for me," he said. 
Sturmay is in his fourth year of studies at the U of A as he completes a Bachelor of Science degree with a specialization in chemistry.

He's not new to the U Sports national championship. The past two years Sturmay played third on a team skipped by Thomas Scoffin, losing in the final both times.

Winners will represent Canada at Winter Universiade

"We've  been so close the last two years," Sturmay said. "It would be extremely special for me to win. I've never won a national championship before."

Sturmay said the level of competition at the university level continues to grow, and teams started to get more serious four or five years ago when winning a national title meant representing Canada at the Winter Universiade. This year's winners will represent Canada in the 2019 Winter Universiade at Krasnoyarsk, Russia.

"I think it's getting better with each passing year and people are taking it seriously. It leads to something including wearing the maple leaf," he said. 

Sturmay points to players like Brendan Bottcher, Laura Crocker and Kelsey Rocque, who have gone through the university ranks and won a title and then carved out careers on the men's and women's national circuit.

"I think the talk for years was that there was a huge between junior play and men's and women's play but that gap is being closed. The support from Curling Canada investing in these events is playing a big role in that," Sturmay said. 

Sturmay's sister, Selena, is also competing in the university event as the second on U of A's women's team. As soon as the two finish the team event, they'll compete together in the mixed doubles nationals also taking place in Leduc.

"The university final is at 12 p.m. Wednesday and our first mixed game is 8:30 p.m. that night," Karsten said. "Selena and I have been joking around that she'll sweep on her team event and because I'm skipping I'll sweep during the mixed event."

How it works

There are eight teams of each gender competing in both the university and collegiate events. They will play a seven-game round-robin event with the top four teams moving on to the playoffs.

All four semifinal games will be played Tuesday, March 27 in Leduc with both championships, as well as the bronze-medal games, played on Wednesday. 

Last year, Newfoundland's Memorial University won the men's university championship and Sudbury's Laurentian University won the women's. Red Deer College and London, Ont.'s Fanshawe College were the women's and men's champions in the college competition, respectively.