For Joel Retornaz and his Italian-based curling team, competing in Sault Ste. Marie has a bit of a hometown feel to it.
Having represented Italy on the international stage, Retornaz came away impressed with the inaugural Soo Curlers Fall Classic a year ago. He was so impressed, in fact, it was pretty much an automatic that he and his team — which includes third Amos Monsaner, second Sebastiano Arman and lead Mattia Giovanella — would return this year for the newly dubbed Henderson Metal Fall Classic.
“The Sault made us come back,” Retornaz said ahead of the open of the tournament, which kicked off Thursday. “It was an amazing atmosphere here last year. We had a great time. The event they’re putting together here is amazing. It’s going to be even better this year.”
The Italian skip reflected further on his impressions of the city and tournament from a year ago, looking back on just how well he and his teammates were treated while in the Sault.
“We’re used to having lots of fans in Canada, lots of people with an Italian background, but here in the Sault, I realized the Italian community is quite big,” Retornaz said. “We had a lot of fun talking to them last year. They even invited us for meals. We didn’t have time to go there, but of course we liked to eat some proper Italian food while we’re here in Canada for a while. It was super nice to get to meet those people and talk to them in our language and also for them, having someone speaking Italian, it’s cool.”
Retornaz wasn’t the only skip to come away from Sault Ste. Marie impressed with what they saw a year ago.
Skip Matt Dunstone called winning last year’s tournament “probably the highlight of our season.”
“This is our best tour stop outside of the Grand Slams,” Dunstone said. “This is a brand new event, but easily one of our favourites.”
While many of the teams in the Sault this weekend are household names, it’s also an opportunity for other rinks to get an opportunity to compete with some of the world’s best.
“We might not be on the national stage like some of these teams are….but we have some good throwers on our team as well,” said Charlie Robert, who skips a local team entered in the tournament.
“If we curl up to our potential, we can give some guys a run for their money,” Robert added. “As long as we make a little bit of noise and get them sweating a bit, we’ll be happy.”
The Robert rink is being skipped this weekend by Greg Balsdon.
While action kicked off Thursday, draws continue throughout the weekend with the tournament final slated for Sunday afternoon.