Zoe and Max Cinnamon are both heading to curling nationals

The idea of having their daughter and son both advance to national curling championships in the same year was far from the minds of Larry and Dawn-Marie Cinnamon when their kids took up the sport at a young age at the old Cochrane curling rink.

Yet years later, the picture was completed, right here where it all began.

Zoe Cinnamon will be competing for her first national championship as third with Team Gray-Withers of the University of Alberta after winning the U20 women's provincial championship at the Cochrane Curling Centre.

Earlier this month, her younger brother Max earned a berth in the U18 national championship as lead on the top team in the Alberta Junior Curling Tour.

Zoe is thrilled to fulfill something she's been pursuing for years to add to her long and impressive list of accomplishments.

"I've worked for this for so many years. I've lost three provincial finals, so to finally win one just feels huge, and to get to go to nationals with some of my best friends is amazing," says Zoe.

Winning on home ice was the icing on the cake.

"It means so much," she says."I could look up from off the ice and see all my friends and family there supporting me, and it was huge. I just felt all the love."

Zoe's been curling for the University of Alberta Pandas for two years after being signed in her graduating year at Cochrane High in the spring of 2020.

"The women's standings have been close all season, so it was really anyone's game when we got here, but we definitely just peaked at the right time, and we laid it all out on the table to get this event."

Team Gray Wither scored two in the 10th end to come from behind to beat the Olivia Jones rink, 6-5. In the semifinals, they beat Team Booth, 8-6.

Their counterpart U of A men's team, the Johnson Tao Rink, also advanced to the nationals.

"That was super exciting, too, because they are some of our best friends, so we all get to go together, which is awesome."

Team Wipf also competed and advanced to the U20 quarter-finals before being eliminated by Team Ballance, 9-8. To their credit, Team Wipf beat the Tao rink by a score of 9-8 in the qualifier to advance to playoffs.

Larry and Dawn-Marie have played a huge role in junior curling for many years. Watching Zoe play last week was exciting, but seeing the quality of curling by these rising stars was equally captivating.

"I don't think I've seen better curling from Alberta's best," says Dawn-Marie. "Fifteen boys teams, 13 girls teams, the best teams in the province represented, and they just played fantastic all week. We're so lucky to have the breath of curling we have in Alberta with these youngsters."

She says the Gray-Withers Rink played exceptionally well against some stiff competition.

"They played spectacular, and to finish with that title of Alberta champions to represent at the New Holland Canadian Juniors has been Zoe's goal all these years, and she finally achieved it."

Dawn-Marie says if you told her years ago that both Zoe and Max would be heading to the nationals in the same year, she likely would have laughed.

"To say both of them would be going a month apart to represent Alberta is crazy, it's crazy good."

She says it's always been Zoe's passion to represent Canada in curling at the Olympics. While Max has always been passionate about the sport, this is his first year of competitive curling after finding the right group, and he's enjoying every minute of it.

Both Dawn-Marie and Zoe had already arranged to head to the U18 nationals to support Max, and now arrangements will be made to have family present when Zoe plays. Those who can't attend in person will be cheering them on from home. You can be assured, many others in Cochrane will be doing the same.

Zoe's nationals are in Stratford, ON from Mar. 25 to Apr. 1. Max will be competing in Oakville, ON from May 2 to 7.