The Cochrane High School has added a new provincial championship banner to the packed walls of their gymnasium, thanks to five of their students.

The school is now home to the high school girls provincial champions Zoe Cinnamon, Karly Macauley, Grace Prudden, Brooke Kindleman and Paige Roux and they did it in style.

From divisional to zone to provincials the Cinnamon rink went undefeated in 15 straight games to be named the best in Alberta.

At the St. Albert provincials, the Cinnamon rink beat St. Thomas More High School, 6-4,  Barrhead Composite, 7-6, Harry Wise Wood, 9-4, and Paul Kane High School, 8-7, in the round robin to be the only undefeated team entering the playoff round. The Cinnamon Rink went on to send the Blessed Sacrament High School to the bronze medal game (which they won) before beating Bev Facey High in the final, 9-6.

For grade 10 student and longtime curler Zoe Cinnamon, 16, playing for Cochrane High is something she has long been anticipating. It was the first year the grade 10 student was eligible and she and her team didn't waste any time leaving a mark on the high school curling scene.

Here with the provincial championship banner are, from left, coach/teacher rep Tammy Hodgson, skip Zoe Cinnamon, third Karly Macaulay, second Grace Prudden, lead Brooke Kindleman, alternate Paige Roux and coach Jenica Copithorne.

Joining Cinnamon on the team were third Karly Macaulay (gr. 12), second Grace Prudden (gr. 12), lead Brooke Kindleman (gr. 11) and alternate Paige Roux (gr. 10). Jenica Copithorne was their coach and Tammy Hodgson wore two hats; coach and the teacher representative. 

Cinnamon had only curled with Macaulay before but there was a natural chemistry between all players on the team and she believes keeping it fun was the secret of their success.

"We just have a lot of fun on the ice.," says Cinnamon. "We didn't make it too serious and we really didn't have any expectations of going far this year,  We really just wanted to make it to provincials and then we ended up winning it."

Still, there were many close matchups in the provincials and most of their wins came by a single point.

"It turned out to be a lot harder than what I was expecting. At zones and divisionals, the games were easy, we won no problem. When we got to provincials, all of our games were pretty tight."

The team had only been together since November and practiced regularly Wednesdays and on Tuesday, when possible. Macaulay was the natural pick for third, explains Cinnamon, because of her experience in calling lines. Kindleman was solid on draws, so she became the lead.

Cinnamon is still eligible for high school curling for two more years while two of her teammates are graduating this summer. She does intend to do more high school curling in the future but is considering switching to mixed doubles, now that her regular teammate, Ky Macaulay, starts grade 10 in the fall.

This isn't Cinnamon's only team. She skips a competitive rink that largely plays out of the Calgary Winter Club and is formed by two Cochrane and two Calgary curlers. She's also part of a mixed doubles team.

Her competitive team participates in numerous bonspiels through the course of the season and it has been a good year. The lowest they've placed is fourth and their best was second in Red Deer.

She was also in the Alberta Winter Games mixed doubles event last month with Ky Macaulay, where they finished sixth.

Curling is her favourite sport and has been since she started at age 8. She has skipped the last three seasons and many will know her by her trademark "cupcake" hat. 

"I've worn that since I was 11. I bought it Ontario in the summer so it was really hot. My mom said I was never going to wear it, so every time I curl I wear it just to make a point. It just became the thing," she laughs.

The season soon draws to a close but not before they participate in the Canada Winter Games Pretrials.

Her ambition is to play in Canada's elite women's championship, the Scotties Tournament of Hearts.