The Miami Marlins girls curling team is heading to the Manitoba High School Provincial Curling Championships after winning the Zone 4 playdowns in Morris on Feb. 3.
The team consists of skip Danielle Poulsen, third Morgan Turner, second Nyah Dyck, lead Sari Bennett, and coaches Blaine Rutter and Ed Driedger. This was their first year curling together. Poulsen and Turner began curling in the fourth grade under Blaine Rutter’s program in Miami, while Dyck and Bennett have been curling since Grade 6.
Rutter serves as the girls’ coach and also oversees middle school and elementary curling in the community, with Ed Driedger as the team’s assistant coach. The Miami team completed the zones undefeated with a perfect 5-0 record, which the players found a little unexpected.
“I don’t think we expected to win, but everybody else expected us to win,” said Poulsen. “We didn’t really think that we had a chance because at the beginning of the season, we went into a bonspiel and lost all three games. In our second bonspiel in Winkler, we won and went undefeated, so I guess we felt pretty good going into zones.”
In the zone finals, Miami played against the Morden Thunder and won decisively, with a score of 10-2 in a game that lasted only six ends.
“We got really lucky and scored four in the second end which was helped us get ahead,” said Morgan Turner. “It was 7-1 after four ends. When we were playing after that, we knew they were a good team and knew they could come back if we weren’t sharp, so we stayed focused and stayed with our game.”
For the players on the Miami Marlins, this is their first time qualifying for the High School Provincials. In fact, it’s the first time in years that Miami is sending a girls’ team to the provincials.
“We’ve never been close before as its a strong zone, so the best we’d done in previous years is fourth,” said Poulsen. “It was the first curling banner in a while for Miami School, too, since 1998 was the last time we won a girls curling banner.”
The Miami girls’ curling team will now head to Beausejour to compete in the 2025 Manitoba High School Provincial Curling Championships from February 13 to 15. While they aim to win, Poulsen and her team are also excited to enjoy the experience of participating in a provincial curling championship.
“We just want to have fun at provincials because it will be our last bonspiel as a team, as we’re graduating this year,” said Poulsen. “We want to hopefully win a couple of games but just have fun and play well as a team. A big thank you to the coaches, parents and the school for all the support. The coaches devote a lot of time, and the icemaker always makes the ice for our practices, so we very much appreciate it.”
