The Jocelyn Peterman rink will be one of the younger foursomes at the Canadian junior girls’ curling championships, but they’re anything but intimidated.
The Red Deer native has competed at the national level twice before, winning medals both times.
She won bronze at the Canadian juvenile finals in 2009 and last year was second in the Canada Games, losing to B.C. in the final.
“There are four rinks at the juniors who were at the Canada Games, but the B.C. rink isn’t one of them,” said Peterman, who left for Canadians in Napanee, Ont., Thursday along with third Brittany Tran of Red Deer, Rebecca Konschuh of Sundre and Kristine Anderson of Cluny.
All four members of the Peterman rink, who have been together for two years, are 18 and have two more years of junior eligibility.
“We’ll be one of the younger rinks at the nationals, but we’re excited about being there and we’re going in with confidence,” she said.
Peterman has a great deal of experience, as she got into the sport when she was five.
“I was two years to young to be in the league, but my dad (Llowell Peterman) was the ice maker and my mom (Nancy McInerney) the coach, so I got into the light rock program,” she said with a laugh.
Peterman won the junior provincials with an 8-5 win over Delburne native Brittany Whittemore, who plays out of Edmonton. Peterman posted a 6-1 record in round-robin, which gave her first place and a bye to the final.
She came into the playoffs as the top-ranked team after leading the newly formed Alberta Junior Curling Tour standings.
“The tour is new this year, but really it just combines all the bonspiels they had before,” explained Peterman. “What they do have is a final in March, which will be new, and a fun event.”
But Peterman hopes to be busy in March with the World junior championships slated for March 3-11 in Ostersund, Sweden.
“That’s our goal,” she said.
The Peterman foursome have been together, or played against each other for years. Tran and Peterman have been together for nine years while Konschuh has played against the pair while skipping her own team out of Sundre, which also included Anderson.
“We always picked up Rebecca as a spare when we went anywhere,” explained Peterman, who attends Mount Royal University in Calgary along with Tran and Konschuh. Anderson is at the Marvel College in Calgary.
“With three of us at Mount Royal is was natural to team up and it was good that Kristine was in Calgary as well.”
The foursome were able to practice in Calgary, although it was harder than Peterman expected.
“We didn’t realize how hard it was to get ice time, it’s more difficult than in Red Deer. But it’s been OK.”
McInerney coaches the team, but they’re also working with JD Lind in Calgary.
“He coached the 2007 Alberta boys’ team to the nationals and worlds and has coached the (Alberta) girls’ team at the Canadians,” said Peterman. “He has been working to get us mentally prepared. It’s a benefit to have someone with that kind of experience helping us.”
Peterman, who plays fastball in the summer with the midget Rage, opens play at the nationals Saturday at 8 a.m. (MST) against B.C. They also face Saskatchewan Saturday in the 13-team round-robin.
The semifinal and final goes Feb. 11.
“It’s not much different than other finals we’ve been to except there’s more teams and we play two games everyb day expect two. That will be mentally tough, but that’s something we’ve worked on,” said Peterman.
drode@www.reddeeradvocate.com