LONDON, Ont. - Fanshawe curling head coach Barry Westman, along with two former Falcons, Tess Bobbie and Rachelle Strybosch (née Vink), will be competing in the 2022 Scotties Tournament of Hearts being held in Thunder Bay, Ont. The Scotties will run from Friday, Jan. 28 to Sunday, Feb. 6, where 16 teams from across Canada will compete for the opportunity to win the Canadian women's championship and be the country's representative at the World Women's Curling Championship.
Westman has been the Fanshawe Falcons curling head coach since 2011 and has won 24 OCAA medals, including nine gold. He has also led the Falcons to 12 CCAA medals and six national titles, making the program the most decorated in the CCAA. He is a three-time CCAA National Coach of the Year. Strybosch and Bobbie were both members of the 2014-15 CCAA national championship Fanshawe Falcons women's curling team. Strybosch was a CCAA and OCAA All-Star and was named a CCAA Academic All-Canadian. Bobbie was also an OCAA All-Star in the Falcons' OCAA gold-medal winning championship tournament.
"They have been curling together for the past 15 years," stated Westman. "I have been along for the ride as a fan, friend and coach of these two amazing ladies."
Nathan McFadden, Fanshawe's Director of Athletics and Recreation stated "this is another example of the high performance student-athletes that go through our program and the excellent coaching that they receive to help them achieve their goals at the national or international level. We are so proud of them and will be cheering them on at the Scotties!"
The team representing Ontario is from the Woodstock Curling Centre and is comprised of skip Hollie Duncan, vice Megan Balsdon, second Strybosh and lead Bobbie. They have been playing as a team since the beginning of the 2020-21 season.
"We are extremely honoured to have been selected as Ontario's representative at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts. Following the cancellation of the Ontario Curling Championships earlier this month, our team was selected based on our performance this past year. Our season has included wins against Jennifer Jones (Canada's 2022 Olympic team), Kerri Einarson (2020 and 2021 Canadian Champion) and Rachel Homan (defending Ontario Champion and 2018 Canadian Olympic team and 2022 Canadian Mixed Doubles representative)", said Westman. "We feel quite at home competing against the best teams in Canada and can't wait to get to Thunder Bay."
Team Ontario's first match will be on Saturday, Jan. 29 at 2:00 p.m. against Team Canada (Einarson). The full draw can be found here: https://www.curling.ca/2022scotties/draw/.
Source: Fanshawe Falcons