Someone named Galusha won a bonspiel, but it’s not the one you would immediately think of when you think of people with the Galusha surname.
Sydney Galusha is who we’re talking about. She was the skip of the winning rink in the 32nd Annual Koe Family Boxing Day Bonspiel at the Yellowknife Curling Centre on Dec. 26. She and her team of Brooklyn Hewitt, Kerry Galusha and Samantha White ended up atop the standings once all the games were completed and the points counted.
The younger Galusha was succinct when asked about how it felt to win her first event as a skip.
“Pretty cool,” she said.
Her mom was equally proud.
“She was awesome — all of the girls were,” said Kerry Galusha. “They carried me to victory and she got to tell me what to do.”
The format of the event remained the same as it has since the original one: absolutely no stacked teams. Every team had to have at least one junior curler and one beginner to the sport. Each team was guaranteed three games of four ends under a modified scoring system. In addition to teams scoring points in an end, bonus points were earned for winning an end and for winning a game.
In their final game versus the Naugler family, Sydney had an open draw for four in the last end and stuck it, giving her crew enough points to finish first overall. The Chiasson family ended up in second place.
Was the skipper nervous? Maybe just a bit.
“I wasn’t really nervous, except for the last game,” Sydney said. “I didn’t do anything special, just played the game how I know.”
Mom said skipper learned a thing or two from the big kids.
“I gave her a few tips on strategy, but she knows what to do,” said Kerry. “She’s always practising with us (Team Galusha).”
This year’s bonspiel was understandably smaller due to the ongoing pandemic but there wasn’t any special exemption needed, said Lynda Koe, who organized the event. It was a great time, she said.
“Everyone had a good time, like they do every year,” she said. “It’s so easy to run because the community supports it every year and everyone enjoys it.”
That support also extends to the business community, which provided plenty of prizes, she added.
“We had 17 businesses donate something to us,” she said.