Colton Costa (second from left) was part of the University of British Columbia Okanagan (UBCO) men’s curling team (Costa was vice skip) that got to compete in the Canadian Interuniversity Sports (CIS) national bonspiel at the Kelowna Curling Club. The championships wrapped up with finals on Wednesday. Members of Costa’s team include (from left) Skip Justin Nillson, second Luke Cooke and lead Cam Mahler. The UBCO team had been playing together for less than three months. (Photo supplied)
Any time you get to compete in a national competition, you should be thankful.
That’s the approach taken by local curler Colton Costa.
Costa, 23, is only weeks away from completing his third-year studies in psychology at the University of British Columbia Okanagan (UBCO) in Kelowna.
Costa is also part of the UBCO curling team that competed this past weekend at the Canadian Interuniversity Sports (CIS) Curling Championships being held at the Kelowna Curling Club.
His team, which includes skip Justin Nillson, second Luke Cooke and lead Cam Mahler, received an automatic entry into the tournament as host team.
The championships semi-finals and finals were held on Wednesday.
Eight men’s teams and eight women’s teams from across Canada were competing in the national university bonspiel.
Costa said he and his teammates were honoured to be competing in a national championship bonspiel, but entered the tournament with realistic expectations.
“The team has only been together for a few weeks and we didn’t play very well in qualifying events, but we have been practicing hard the past couple of weeks and we hope to turn in a good performance at nationals,” said Costa.
“We know the top university teams in the country are going to be there and a lot of these teams have been playing together for several years. Our goal is to try our best and hopefully gain some valuable experience that we can use as competitive curlers in the future.”
Costa first started curling at age eight when his parents Edgar and Pat asked if he would be interested in joining them at the Osoyoos International Curling Club.
He and his older brother Tyson have both been competitive curlers for several years and he joined an intramural league in Kelowna once he started university.
“I would say that I have a passion for curling as it’s easily my favourite sport,” he said. “I’ve met some of my very best friends because of curling and I just love the fact that it’s a competitive sport, but it has a great social component to it.
“It also keeps you in good shape and it’s basically a lot of fun.”
Costa said he joined the UBCO team after Nillson posted something online looking for competitive curlers to join.
“I contacted Justin and we quickly hit it off as friends and we just picked up the two other guys a few weeks ago,” he said. “We’ve only been together as a team for less than three months, but we have been practicing hard to get ready for the nationals.”
His parents made the trip this past weekend to watch him play and he knows he will look back on this experience with fond memories in the future.
“As I mentioned earlier, any time you get to compete in a national championship, you have to be excited about it,” he said. “I know the guys on the team are excited and we’ll just go out there and do our best and see what happens.”
KEITH LACEY
Osoyoos Times
