Academy Team Program

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Pilot program extended for the 2023-2024 season!

U18 Academy Team Program

The Ontario Curling Council will once again be running our Academy Team program for the 2024/25 season.  The Academy Team Project is a coach-led team that is focused on the development of athletes, with dedicated coaching, testing, curriculum and competitions management. The goal of the program is to assess whether a coach-led team can accelerate development through a more balanced approach to training versus competing.

We are working on expanding the project to multiple centers for the following season however at the moment, only our original home location, Dundas Valley Golf and Curling Club is confirmed.  More information on multiple sites will come soon.  This years team will run from May 2024 to April 2025.

UPDATE: Our second try out / camp date is now a single day – Saturday April 13.  It will still be a skills camp!  Attendees do NOT have to commit to trying out for the team to attend the skills camp.  This will be held at the Dundas Valley Golf and Curling Club.  Attendees MUST register in advance to attend.  All participants must have an up to date, completed Sideline Learning profile to participate. 

Cost for the weekend camp will be $249.99 taxes included and will run from 9am – 4pm Saturday.  Lunch will be included.  

Register for the Dundas Valley Camp

The primary goal of the Academy program is to evaluate how coach-led team formation can impact player development in the Train to Train/Train to Compete stage of development. The focus is on development of athletes and not competition results. Another goal of the program is to determine if regional-based, coach-led and selected teams can be effective for attracting and expanding the number of athletes who play competitively. This is the second year of the program and we are looking to confirm findings we discovered from the first season and to establish this process as a more balanced approach to athlete development.

Announcing the Academy Teams 2023/24

Girls Team

Boys Team

Clara Lawson                         

Lucia Xia                                 

Sophia Barbosa                     

Zoe Fan-Chiang                   

Charles Ritacca                     

Eddy Zhang                           

Leo Shiozaki                           

Evan Gandin                           

Jordan Carvalho                   

 

 

Program Overview

The Academy Program will be led by Sean Turriff, Ontario Curling Council’s Manager of HP Development, and Jennifer Ferris, Manager, Programs and Operations. 

  • The intent is to select two U18 Academy teams, one boys and one girls. Athletes must be U18-eligible for the 2023/24 season. This means each athlete must be 17 years of age or under as of June 30, 2023.
  • There will be four Academy team coaches, two male, two female. All four coaches will work with both the boys and girls teams, but there will be two primary coaches for the boys and two primary coaches for the girls.
  • Academy staff will be contracted to work with athletes within the daily training environment and competitive events.
  • Academy team coaches will be at minimum Competition Development “In-Training” status. Subject matter expert and guest coaches may attend Academy session.
  • Coaches will all be Safe Sport trained.
  • Academy coaches will select the teams based on performance criteria as determined by the Program coaches. This criteria will be published once it has been finalized.
  • The teams selected will train and compete at the Dundas Valley Golf and Curling Club for the 2023/24 season.

Interested? The complete Academy Team Program description can be found here. Tryout camps for the Program will be held in early April and teams will be selected by May 1. For further information contact Sean Turriff at sturriff@ontcurl.com or Jennifer Ferris at jennifer@ontcurl.com. 

Athlete Benefits

Athletes chosen to the program will be funded. This will include:

  • Membership at the Dundas Valley Golf and Curling Club for the 2023/24 season.
  • Competition entry fees
  • Equipment subsidies
  • Uniforms
  • Coaching services for the season, including training / competition support
  • IST support as required throughout the season
  • Athletes will be directed with purposeful skill development directed by certified coaches. An individual performance plan will be developed and a yearly training plan will be developed.
  • Skill development and progress will be measured for each athlete.
  • Teams will have regular practice sessions throughout the season.
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