THUNDER BAY – Trevor Bonot is ready for bubble life in Calgary. Krista McCarville is a little more hesitant.
Bonot, a former Canadian mixed champion, and his teammate Oye Sem-Won, were awarded the Northern Ontario berth at the 2021 mixed doubles championship when the Northern Ontario Curling Association decided to forgo next year’s play-downs.
The duo won provincials last winter in Kenora, only to learn in the days leading up to the event it had been cancelled due to the onset of COVID-19.
McCarville, who has represented Ontario an Northern Ontario eight times at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts, has been invited to do so in 2021, an event originally scheduled for Thunder Bay, but she and her teammates are unsure if they’ll accept the offer due to work and family commitments.
Bonot and Sem-Won, on the other hand, readily accepted the offer and plan to head to Calgary, where Curling Canada has decided to stage several of its national championships inside a bubble, similar to ones used by the NBA and NHL to hold their 2019-20 playoffs.
“It’s pretty exciting,” said Bonot. “We were hoping we would get asked to represent Northern Ontario, considering we won last year and when we were leaving we were told the (nationals) was cancelled, understandably.”
Bonot said because he is self-employed and works from home, and his teammate can do so also, they don’t have to worry about two-week quarantines upon return to Thunder Bay, unlike McCarville and some of her teammates, who would be required to stay away from work for two weeks – in addition to the time off they’d need for the actual event itself.
“We were happy with the way we played in Kenora last year and we’d like to see how we’d do on the national scene,” Bonot said.
The timing of the event, during March Break, also helped Sem-Won, who is teaching from home, with her decision-making process.
McCarville, a teacher with the Thunder Bay Catholic District School Board, said they have until Dec. 18 to decide and will likely take most of that time before giving NOCA officials an answer.
While the idea of a bubble and the automatic berth into the national women’s championship is intriguing, there are a lot more factors that will weigh into their final decision.
“It’s excited because we are the chosen ones, but we have some thinking to do about it,” she said earlier this week.
“It is really exciting to be appointed, but at the same time we have to think beyond just curling. We have to think about COVID. We have to think about going to Calgary, where the cases are exploding, as well. We’re in the second wave and we don’t know how long it’s going to last,” McCarville said.
“We’ve had a couple of meetings about it and we have some decisions to make.”
McCarville in particular is concerned about leaving the region and ultimately returning to her Grade 6 classroom.
“That’s taking a lot of time off of work to go curling, and not only that, but thinking about my family as well. Can I come back to my family or do I have to isolate as well and not be around them is a thought,” McCarville said. “Even after that, coming back to my class and the 26 kids I teach. I’m thinking about them as well as my family.”
Several of her teammates have young families too.
Team McCarville won silver at the Scotties in 2016 and bronze in 2010.
