A once in a lifetime opportunity came true for grade 9 David Thompson Secondary School student Garrett Kashuba at the Canada Cup of Curling, held from November 30 to December 4 in Cranbrook.

Kashuba and curling teammate Logan Powell were two of 14 Kootenay-based junior curlers who won an opportunity through a Columbia Basin Trust Junior Stars essay contest to shadow a professional curling team during the cup weekend.

Each winner was assigned to a different team during the five-day event, where they were able to interact with the teams during practice and get some advice from world-class curlers. Kashuba drew the Jacobs rink from Ontario, and said it was an “inspiring experience.”

“It was pretty fun, I was introduced to all the coaches and team members and the coach talked me through some of their training exercises,” Kashuba said. “They also showed me how they practice for games, and all of their little secrets.”

Kashuba has been curling for four years, and as part of his winning essay had to explain why he loved curling and why he wanted to be a junior star.

Kashuba has no plans of stopping anytime soon either, and says he wants to, “go big” with curling in the future.

“It’s a fun sport where you don’t really have to break a sweat to have a fun game,” Kashuba said.

As part of the program, Kashuba also received an official Canada Cup jersey with his name across the back, and managed to snag a broom signed by as many pro curlers as he could find, including members of Canada Cup-winning Jones rink.