Marc Kennedy sends off curling season with 8th-annual bonspiel for young athletes

Young curlers from across Canada took over rinks in Edmonton for one of the biggest youth bonspiels in the world. CTV News Edmonton’s Connor Hogg has the story.

Some of Canada’s best young curlers took to rinks in Edmonton and surrounding areas this weekend for what’s been billed as the world’s largest junior bonspiel.

The Marc Kennedy Junior Classic began 10 years ago but was paused for two due to COVID-19. It features 80 teams of athletes between the ages of 10 and 20 at four separate curling clubs in central Alberta from Thursday to Sunday.

For the event’s namesake himself, that makes for a busy weekend.

“It’s chaos, but it’s good chaos … This whole event is just a real labour of love for myself and Nicole,” Marc Kennedy, two-time Olympic gold medallist and St. Albert native, said on Saturday.

Kennedy threw his sport into the spotlight at the Milano Cortina Games this year after his granite touch made for well-documented controversy. Canada would ultimately go home with the men’s curling gold medal.

The love of the game, he says, is what keeps him and his wife passionate about the tournament and growing kids’ connections in the curling community.

“It’s a full circle moment for me … The sport’s given me so much. Everything good I have in my life is from curling. I met my wife curling. My best friends are my teammates,” he said.

“To be able to give some of that back to the kids, to win a gold medal and bring it and share it with them … it’s going to inspire the next generations of leaders.”

Kennedy’s two daughters, he says, have also caught the curling bug – along with some 325 other young athletes in the tournament. The athletes said the bonspiel was an opportunity to meet an Olympian and send off the 2026 curling season.

“I find it very welcoming. There’s room for error, there’s nice people. You can just be yourself and have fun,” said Emily Patton.

Penny Duncan, who coaches a U15 team from Calgary, said her family has been at every Marc Kennedy Junior Classic since its inception. Both her children were facing teams from Saskatchewan, B.C. and Ontario on Saturday.

“It’s a great event, because Marc’s name brings in more sponsorship, more fun, and he wants to make it fun for the kids,” she said.

“Everytime you show up, your main goal is to have fun. A lot of (the kids) are competing at a really high level all year, and they’re getting serious.”

Games wrap up on Sunday, but Saturday night will feature a no-parents-allowed party for the players to connect.

Duncan said events like these are especially helpful for older teens who want to pursue curling at the university level but may have to move provinces to do so.

“They create connections. They create community. It shows these kids that there are other kids in this country playing the same sport as they are, that are doing fun things.”

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Connor Hogg and Galen McDougall