A men’s curling team from Hay River has won this year’s NWT playdowns, qualifying for the 2025 national championship – the Brier.
D’arcy Delorey said he and other Team Bartling members – Aaron Bartling, Norm Bassett and Eric Preston – had only just come together. The past weekend’s territorial championship was the team’s first competitive event.
Team Bartling defeated Team Skauge in Sunday morning’s semi-finals at territorials, held in Hay River, then beat Team Koe 7-6 in that afternoon’s final. Jamie Koe had been attempting to reach his 18th Brier.
Delorey said the victory means a lot for his hometown, Hay River, considering the Yellowknife Curling Club has dominated men’s territorials up to this point.
“Very exciting. Kind-of letting it all soak in. I think it’s maybe a little surreal still to actually have finally qualified,” he told Cabin Radio.
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“This is the first time the Hay River Curling club has sent a team to the Brier or had a team that won the men’s territorials … I can only hope it’s a positive thing for the club and even some of the curlers that it is still possible to accomplish these goals. It’ll be nice to have a banner hanging at the club for the Brier.”
Delorey, who has been curling since he was six, said his parents were “heavily involved” members at the club. That encouraged him to spend a “lot of time” as a junior curler and continue playing the sport into adulthood.
Preston and Delorey live in Hay River. While Bassett grew up in the town and now resides in Edmonton, Bartling is from Alberta’s Drayton Valley. (The team is allowed one out-of-territory member.)
Delorey said the team had very little time together on the ice before territorials.
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“We tried to throw rocks as much as we could. We had two events which I think had some combination of all of our team, but the second game of the territorials was actually the first game that we fully curled together as a team,” he said.
“We are a new team this year so it was kind-of interesting that we have all got day jobs and travel. It was hard lining up schedules to get everybody together.”
The 2025 Brier is set to take place in Kelowna from February 28-March 9.
Though Delorey anticipates a tough contest ahead, he said the team’s goal is to enjoy the experience while staying “as competitive as we can.”
“Obviously that was the goal, to make a run at it,” he said, “and we’re very happy with the result.”
