U-25 NEXTGEN CLASSIC GETS UNDERWAY AT EDMONTON’S SAVILLE CENTRE

For the fourth year in a row, Edmonton’s Saville Community Sports Centre has become a hotbed of early-season curling activity.   

Once again, 12 men’s and 12 women’s teams (with an average age under 25) will take part in Curling Canada’s NextGen Classic, beginning Tuesday. After the four-player event is over, 20 co-ed pairs will take on the Mixed Doubles event. 

“Again this year, we have teams from all across the country,” said Helen Radford, Curling Canada’s Manager, NextGen & Podium Pathway. “We had a huge waitlist, which was fantastic. We filled it with no problem.” 

“The event continues to gain momentum, providing young curlers with meaningful competition, access to high-performance support, and a pathway toward national and international success,” said Radford. “It’s exciting to see how this event is shaping the future of our sport.” 

While that may sound like an exaggeration, the fact is the NextGen Classic has seen recent champions go on to immediate success in the men’s and women’s game.  

Number one-seed Team Sam Mooibroek (Waterloo, Ont.) won the 2022 edition of the NextGen Classic and went on to skip Ontario at the 2025 Montana’s Brier. Several other competitors like Team Owen Purcell and Team Rylan Kleiter have also parlayed NextGen success to Brier appearances.  

“We’ve played in the event every year, and have seen it develop, and watch the program evolve,” said Mooibroek. “When we played in the Brier last year, there were three or four teams that had recently played in the U-25 events pretty recently. It’s great to see the program growing.” 

This year’s field also includes Team Jordon McDonald (Winnipeg) and Team Calan MacIsaac (Truro, N.S.) who, along with Team Mooibroek, have booked their spots in the 2025 PointsBet Invitational in Calgary. That event will feature mostly teams qualified for the Montana’s Canadian Olympic Trials in December. Team McDonald, Team Mooibroek, and Team Myla Plett – on the women’s side – can still qualify for those trials, through the Home Hardware Pre-Trials in October.  

Plett, the 2023 U-20 Canadian Champion, is the top seed in the women’s event.  Team Serena Gray-Withers, fresh off a Canadian title of its own (and an appearance at the World University Games) are a close second seed, just a few points behind on the rankings. 

After a five-game preliminary round, four teams from each gender will move into the playoffs, with the championship being decided on Thursday. Winners will be included in the NextGen development program moving forward and earn $6,000 in competitive funding.  The Mixed Doubles event will run from Friday, August 29th to the 31st.

All games will be streamed on the Curling Stadium Youtube channel found here: https://www.youtube.com/@CurlingStadiumEdmonton 

Scores and draws can be found at http://curling.ca/scoreboard