A young up-and-coming rink from the Richmond Curling Club is looking forward to the opportunity of competing against other top juvenile teams from around the province at the B.C. Winter Games in Penticton.
Led by skip Gabriel Kwok, the RCC team earned a trip to the Okanagan by winning last month’s Zone 5 Playdowns in Squamish, defeating a rink from the Howe Sound Curling Club.
Kwok is joined by two other Richmond curlers — third Johnson Tao and second Brandon Tong. Rounding out the foursome is lead Jay Hou from Delta.
Kwok is a Grade 9 student in the Incentive Program at Hugh Boyd, while Tong is enrolled in the Explorations Program at McMath. Tao is in his Grade 8 year at Burnett and Hou is a Grade 9 student at the Regent Christian Academy. The boys are coached by Tammy Hughes and Peter Kwok.
All of the team members are passionate about curling, and excited to compete at the provincial level for the first time.
They have been curling for four to six years, and started to get more serious about competing last year when they came in second in the regional playdowns, with a slightly different line-up. This season, they have stepped up their attendance at curling camps, bonspiels, the Optimist Junior Interclub Curling League and practices to prepare for competition.
The boys are also active volunteering in the community and at their club, including last year’s B.C. Wheelchair Curling Championships.
The Richmond rink will be up against six other Zone champions at the B.C. Winter Games which run from Feb. 25-28.
