Certain questions hung over the finals Monday of the $22,000 Island Shootout at Victoria Curling Club. It was a World Tour event in which the winning male and female rinks earned berths into the men’s and women’s ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ championships in Langley on the road to the 2025 national men’s Brier and women’s Scotties Tournament of Hearts.
Will this finally be the year for three-time ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ runner-up Jason Montgomery, who defended his men’s title in the Island Shootout with a 6-3 victory in the all-VCC final over the Cameron de Jong rink? And how will Island Shootout women’s winner Taylor Reese-Hansen — 8-4 winner over Steph Jackson-Baier in the all-VCC final — fare in her double-track quest over the winter to win the provincial women’s title and also the Canadian qualifying trials in mixed doubles with Corey Chester for the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics?
“It’s busy,” said Reese-Hansen, in maybe the curling understatement of the year.
She also works full-time, from the Island, for an industrial services company based in her hometown of Kitimat. But that hasn’t stopped Reese-Hansen in her quest for both the Scotties nationals and 2026 Winter Milan-Cortina Winter Games.
“We’ve put a lot of work in this season and our rink [third Megan McGillivray, second Kim Bonneau and lead Julianna Mackenzie] has really come together,” she said.
“As for Olympic qualifying in mixed doubles, Corey [Chester] and I are in a good spot and are capable of it.”
The VCC, meanwhile, has produced the last two ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ men’s champions that have played in the 2023 and 2024 Brier. Montgomery lost to the Catlin Schneider rink in the all-VCC 2024 provincial final at the Archie Browning Sports Centre to follow up his two previous ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ championship game losses to Jim Cotter from the Okanagan.
“We have as good a chance as any this season,” said Montgomery, about his rink’s prospects of finally breaking through to play in the Brier.
“You never know if it’s going to be your week or not at provincials. But I like the way we’re playing and are going to make another run at it. We just have to keep grinding.”
Montgomery’s rink of third Chris Baier, second Miles Craig and lead Troy Cowan had already qualified for the ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ championships by winning the Maple Ridge tournament earlier this season. That means the runner-up de Jong rink, featuring the Olympic hopeful and former two-time ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ junior champion Chester, will get the automatic berth to provincials out of the Island Shootout.
“Both rinks are top-five in the province and we’re all friends off the ice,” said Montgomery.
That all four rinks in the Island Shootout finals were from the host rink spoke volumes about the Victoria Curling Club’s success the past few years.
“Our club houses a good number of the top teams in the province right now,” noted Montgomery, a landscaper in his career away from the rink.
Added Reese-Hansen: “This is a very special club that has put high-performance curling on a pedestal. Seeing all-Island finals on both sheets today was amazing and shows the level of curling happening here.”
Case-in-point is women’s Island Shootout runner-up Jackson-Baier, who has won nine ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ championships in various categories.
“This has been building and building here for several years and so many young players are moving here to be part of the Victoria Club’s success and atmosphere,” said Jackson-Baier.
“We love competing against each other and have become spoiled by the national-level of play here. But we still enjoy ourselves. It’s about the high level of competition, but it’s also still about the joy of curling.”
