Tara Naugler knows the feeling of winning a national junior curling championship and now, her oldest son has that same feeling.
Adam Naugler is officially a national champion as he helped his Alberta squad to the men’s title at the 2023 New Holland Canadian U21 Curling Championships in Rouyn-Noranda, Que., on Sunday. The 19-year-old from Yellowknife played lead for the rink skipped by Johnson Tao as they went on to beat Northern Ontario, 7-4, in the final on Sunday.
Naugler represented Alberta by virtue of his attending school at the University of Alberta-Augustana this year, where he’s majoring in economics.
“My mom won it all those years ago and I’ve won it and it’s a special feeling,” said Naugler on Sunday afternoon.
Naugler’s outfit finished atop the standings following the round-robin with a record of seven wins and one loss, one win better than Nova Scotia. That got them a bye to the semifinal on Saturday evening, where they awaited the winner of the quarter-final between Ontario and Manitoba. Ontario would emerge victorious to move on, but it would be Alberta who would come out on top, 7-1, to advance to the title contest.
In the final, Alberta opened with hammer and scored two, which Northern Ontario answered in the second end with a single to make it 2-1. Alberta got one on the third before Northern Ontario scored a deuce with last rock to tie it at 3-3. After a blank in the fifth, Northern Ontario would steal a single in the sixth to move ahead, 4-3.
Alberta got that back in the seventh to level it at 4-4, but the big end was the eighth as Alberta stole a pair to make it 6-4. Another steal of one in the ninth for Alberta tightened the screws on Northern Ontario and Alberta was able to run Northern Ontario out of rocks in the 10th to claim the gold medal.
“Our game plan was to take things one game at a time and set our routine,” said Naugler. “We knew if we played to our potential, it would all go according to plan and luckily, it did.”
Alberta actually had two teams in this year’s championship, due in part not every jurisdiction entering teams; that included the NWT, which didn’t have a men’s team, but did have Reese Wainman’s rink out of the Inuvik Curling Centre on the women’s side.
Naugler’s rink went in as Alberta 2 after being selected by Curling Alberta to assume the second spot based on results from the Alberta Junior Curling Tour.
“It’s a points system they use to determine who got the spot,” said Naugler. “We had enough points from our results and finishes during the season.”
Normally, the men’s and women’s winners would advance to the World Junior Curling Championships by right, but there’s a small wrinkle for the 2024 event. Because both of Canada’s entries finished outside the top-six at the 2023 event in Germany back in February, Canada will have to play in the B event in order to rejoin the main event.
Naugler said he thinks the qualifier will be in Finland, but it doesn’t matter where.
“They’ll let us know when it’s confirmed, but I’ll get to wear the maple leaf,” he said.