The Deneen Cup dates back to the early days of organized women’s curling in Manitoba. Its intent was, and continues to be, to create an opportunity for creation of relationships between clubs and curlers in a friendly inter-club competition.

The first renewal saw two teams of women from Lorette Curling Club travel to Pembina for two games of curling and hospitality, hosted by Pembina.

During the 8-end games, the host four on each sheet of ice changes sheets at the mid-game break – creating the opportunity for all eight competitors from each club to play against the eight from the other club. Total score of the two games decides the winner.

Tara Kolisnyk, vice-president of the Lorette Curling Club, is chair of the coordinating committee which has put time and effort into renewal of the Deneen Cup Competition over the past year. She was one of the Lorette curlers who visited Pembina.

While it is inevitable that score will be kept, Ms. Kolisynk emphasised the importance of the hospitality received at Pembina. “Pembina CC were fantastic hosts,” she says.

During the mid-game break, and again over supper hosted by Pembina, she noted that “we spent the time visiting, asking about different leagues, bonspiels and sharing information about our respective clubs. And the food and atmosphere were top notch.”

She says the event “really solidified the social aspect of curling. Yes, everyone wanted to play their best and compete to the best of their abilities but it was awesome to see 16 ladies come together, get along and enjoy the sport we all love to play.”

For the historical record, the winner of the renewal match was Pembina CC, whose teams won by a total score of 22-9. As winner, Pembina will send two teams to Portage la Prairie in the next match in the series.

The 2023/2024 Deneen Cup has 5 clubs competing, with four clubs hosting games for the season. These games are spread through January and February.

Future challengers include Portage la Prairie (to host January 28), St. Vital (to host February 11), and Charleswood (to host February 28).

Lessons learned from the matches this season will be taken into consideration in for the planning and organizing for next season.  Registration information for the 2024/2025 season will be available on the Curl Manitoba website in March 2024. The rules and information about the Deneen Cup are also available on the website. 

Questions regarding the Deneen Cup can be directed to deneencupchair@gmail.com.

On behalf of the O’Grady Cup Trustees, Ron Margolis extended his congratulations to the volunteers who have taken on the task of renewing the Deneen Cup inter-club competition. “We have seen the value of the O’Grady in creating friendly competition between clubs and in maintaining the traditional emphasis on comradeship and friendly rivalry ahead of competition. We know the Deneen Cup will bring those same attributes to women curlers in Manitoba as the O’Grady Cup has for the men,” he said.

Participants in the Deneen Cup renewal’s first match included:

Pembina Curling Club: Staci Price, Laura Brinkman, Colbie Sierhuis, Danielle Wutske, Lisa Birchard, Samantha Gevers, Quinn Allan, and Hannah Thiessen

Lorette Curling Club: Adele Butcher, Tara Kolisnyk, Lucille Brunette, Natalie Audette, Shawna Kynoch, Gisele Chartier, Collette Wilvers, and Yvonne Delorme

In keeping with the spirit of the event, the playerss are intermingled as one group rather than as two separate teams.

Manitoba sports fans have a special opportunity to win an opportunity to cheer for Team Manitoba at the Regina Montana’s Brier OR MAYBE the Winnipeg Jets in the drive (hopefully) to the Stanley Cup OR MAYBE the Winnipeg Blue Bombers as they start the season with a Grey Cup re-match with the Montreal Alouettes.

These are the featured prizes in the Manitoba Curling Hall of Fame & Museum’s 2024 Manitoba Sports Ticket Raffle (License: LGCA 4051-43040). The window of opportunity is a small one – ticket sales launched today and will close February 10. The winners will be announced at the Viterra Championship in Stonewall.

The first three prizes, in order, are:

• Two event passes for the Regina Montana’s Brier (March 1-10) PLUS $500
• Two tickets for the Winnipeg Jets VS Seattle Kraken (March 5)
• Two tickets on the 50-yeard line, lower bowl, for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers VS Montreal Alouettes (June 6)

Additional prizes will include two pairs of CurlManitoba all-season championship passes for the 2024-25 curling season. The recipients will receive a pair of passes which includes the U-18 & U-21 championships along with the Viterra Men’s, Scotties, Seniors, Masters, Mixed and Club Championship events. There will also be an early-bird prize draw (February 6) for a pair of passes compliments of the 2024 Stonewall Viterra Championship Committee (February 6-11).

Proceeds of the fund-raiser will support the Manitoba Curling Hall of Fame & Museum’s virtual museum project (helping to make the museum’s collection of some 40,000 items available online) and CurlManitoba Junior Development projects rough the Curling for Life Endowment Fund.

Ticket sales are $5.00 each and will also be available in blocks of three for $10. They can be purchased online at www.fundingchange.ca/mbcurlmuseum .

9Curling Canada Release) Curling Canada has announced that a familiar face has been named Curling Canada’s new Chief Executive Officer.

Nolan Thiessen, a three-time Brier and former world men’s curling champion, who has been a member of the Curling Canada senior management team for the past four years, will take the position following a thorough and exhaustive search and interview process conducted by an external agency, SRI, alongside Curling Canada’s Board of Governors CEO hiring committee.

He replaces Katherine Henderson, who departed Curling Canada in August to take the position of CEO and president at Hockey Canada.

“I’m truly humbled by this opportunity, and it’s one that I know comes with a great deal of responsibility, but I have a great team around me that is well-positioned to continue taking our sport forward and build on what Katherine did during her time at Curling Canada,” said Thiessen, 43. “Our sport has so many avenues forward as we look to reach into new communities and make our sport and championship events even more inclusive and welcoming. I can’t wait to see what the future holds for curling in this country.”

Thiessen was a member of Brier-winning teams in 2010, 2014 and 2015, and was a member of Canada’s world championship gold-medal team in 2010.

He retired as a competitive curler following the 2015-16 season, and took on duties as an Athlete Liaison for Curling Canada in 2016 and also served as a consultant. He was formally hired two years later, and most recently served as the Executive Director, Marketing and Fan Experience.

Thiessen also has been active internationally, serving on the World Curling Federation’s Athlete Commission for more than five years (and chairing the commission for three of those years), and then moving onto the WCF’s Competition and Rules Commission a year ago.

Away from curling, Thiessen, a University of Manitoba Bachelor of Commerce graduate, is a member of the Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada, and holds the CPA and CA designations. He also sits on the board of Sport Tourism Canada.

“We said at the beginning of this process that we would leave no stone unturned, and that we would take the time to make sure we do this right, and I firmly we believe we did with Nolan Thiessen,” said Michael Szajewski, Chair of Curling Canada’s Board of Governors. “He has played an integral role in helping our organization move forward over the past few years, and his vision is completely in line with the Board’s on what needs to happen to continue this forward progress.”

Thiessen will assume the full-time duties as CEO this week, taking over from interim CEO Danny Lamoureux, who will resume his retirement plans that were delayed to help Curling Canada transition after Henderson’s departure.

“Danny has been, and will continue to be, a source of wisdom and we couldn’t be more thankful that he stepped up over the past few months as we embarked on our search,” said Szajewski.

“Curling Canada tasked SRI with conducting a comprehensive global search to identify its next CEO,” said Jeff Yocom, SRI’s North American partner leading the search. “Considering the strength and heritage of the sport in Canada, we recognized early on the importance of installing a Canadian into the role. With that intent, we identified an outstanding group of 13 candidates for the board to deeply investigate and consider. We congratulate Nolan for standing out and are confident he will excel in the role and continue the important work of Curling Canada to grow the sport.”