Despite a successful zone tournament, it has been a cold end to the curling season for Hapnot Collegiate.
Weeks after winning the Zone 11 girls’ curling championships on home ice, the team has been stripped of its zone banner and lost a spot in this year’s provincial tournament after concerns were raised over the team using male players.
When organizing the school’s curling program for the season, coaches could not find enough boys to form a team. Instead, the school had their two male players – Matt Ellis and Ryan Nawrocki – play with the school’s two girls’ teams. Each rink consisted of three female players and one male.
Since the Manitoba High School Athletics Association (MHSAA) does not currently have a classification for mixed curling, both teams played in the girls’ division.
Ahead of the zone tournament, which was held in Flin Flon on Feb. 2 and 3, Hapnot coach Kim Bryson said Hapnot checked with tournament officials and other coaches before zones to ensure no rules were being disobeyed and all participating teams would tolerate playing against boys. She said all coaches agreed to allow them to play, mentioning that a female player was able to compete on a boys’ team without incident.
“The rules that we thought were to be followed were sent out to everybody and nobody questioned them prior to the bonspiel starting or the zone tournament starting. Nobody raised a concern or said, ‘Hey, this doesn’t sound right,’” said Bryson.
“I feel as if we were set up to fail.”
Once the tournament started, however, a rival coach told Hapnot coaches that they would be filing an appeal with MHSAA to have both Hapnot teams removed from the tournament.
“An appeal was filed based on ineligible players being used during the zones,” said Shelley Ward, MHSAA Zone 11 president. “After careful consideration from the zone and MHSAA input, the players were deemed ineligible and therefore had to forfeit the banner.”
The 2017-18 MHSAA handbook outlines gender separation for high school sports teams.
“If a school has both a boys’ and a girls’ team, they are encouraged to play for their respective gender,” reads section 2-Q of the MHSAA’s rules and regulations, outlined in the handbook.
There is no explicit language in the MHSAA handbook’s eligibility rules outlawing a male athlete from playing on a girls’ curling team if a school does not have a boys’ team, but MHSAA executive director Chad Falk said existing MHSAA rules prevent boys from playing on girls’ teams.
“It certainly is something that happens very infrequently,” said Falk, referring to the disqualification.
“In this case, there seemed to have been a breakdown of communications,” said Bryson.
“We talked about it, expressed our concern and our disappointment that it came to this. Why wasn’t it brought up to us when we played our first game? We could have switched things."
"Had they asked the zone executive or MHSAA they would have been informed that the male athletes were ineligible to participate on a female team,” said Ward.
Ward said Bryson and the Hapnot contingent were in violation of provincial rules. “When we became aware of it, the team and convener were informed of this.”
The MHSAA handbook also states that girls may try out and play for boys’ teams and does not offer a firm limit on how many girls can play on a boys’ team.
“A curling team with three females and one male could participate in the boys’ division,” said Falk.
MHSAA rules also do not allow athletes to play for both a boys’ and girls’ team in the same sport in the same season.
Bryson said gender advantage in a game like curling was minimal. “Curling is not a contact sport. Their way of thinking is that he could sweep harder and throw rocks harder. My response was to ask if they’ve ever seen some of the other curlers out there. The girl who was on the boys’ team from Gillam, she could throw a takeout just as hard as any guy I know,” she said.
When the appeal was announced, members of the Hapnot rink that had qualified for the tournament final – Hanna Baynton, Kalena Kittle, Nawrocki and Chloe Reitlo – were told they would likely be disqualified.
“We brought the kids around to let them know what was happening. They told us that their decision was – in their words – ‘We started this as a team, and we will end this as a team,’ fully knowing there was a good chance it would be appealed and we would possibly lose the zone banner – which we did,” said Bryson.
The Hapnot rink won the final match, beating Thompson’s R.D. Parker Collegiate. When Hapnot was disqualified, R.D. Parker received the zone banner and qualified for provincials, which were held in Winkler. The Thompson rink went 1-2, losing in the consolation round.
No teams in the girls’ division fielded male players. The MHSAA does not currently have a division for organized mixed curling.
Regardless of the final decision, Bryson is still proud of her athletes and has no issue with the winning rink.
“It’s very disappointing, very disappointing. I feel horrible for the kids and that’s the only reason we do this – for those kids. They should at least be recognized, that these kids did, whether you want to go to provincials or not, they truly did win those. They won those games.”
“We wish the Thompson girls all the best. This had nothing to do with the kids. The kids had nothing to do with this. It was definitely a breakdown in communication. Because of it, our kids paid a big price for it."
