After years of success dominating high school, university and junior-level curling in Ontario, Haliburton’s Owen Nicholls said it was a defining moment for him competing alongside professional players at the 2026 Ontario Tankard last month.
The provincial men’s curling championship was held in Elmira Jan. 5-11 and while Nicholls, playing with his 202526 junior team, ultimately fell short in the 12-team competition, the experience has left him hungry for more.
As his team’s third – the primary strategist who delivers the fifth and sixth stones – Nicholls said he felt pressure heading into the event. Flanked by teammates Tyler MacTavish (skip), Nathan Kim (second) and Nate Thomas (lead), the quartet were the youngest squad to ever qualify for the Tankard, earning their spot by playing their way through open qualifiers in late 2025.
At the event, Nicholls came face-to-face with a major name in Canadian curling – Scott Howard. The son of Canadian Curling Hall of Famer, Glenn Howard, Scott won the 2012 Brier and 2012 World Men’s Curling Championship as an alternate on his father’s team.
“As a junior curler in Ontario, you look up to guys like the Howards. They’ve been to the Brier, seen it all and done it all. So, it’s pretty cool to be not only face-to-face with him, but actually on the ice and competing against him,” Nicholls said.
Facing Howard’s team in the C-Event semi-finals, Nicholls was on the wrong end of a 14-7 result, ending their tournament.
“At the halfway mark of the game, we were up 7-3. We had them rattled, but their experience got the best of us in the second half,” Nicholls said. “It was such a cool experience playing in that arena. It was packed, fans everywhere – it felt exactly like a national event.”
The competition was won by Jayden King and his team out of Tillsonburg, who will now compete at the 2026 Brier, being held in St. John’s, Newfoundland Feb. 27 to March 8.
This is Nicholls’ first time competing on the men’s pro circuit, with the Tankard his third tour event of the season. They won a Tankard qualifier in Simcoe Dec. 14 and, before that, played in the U25 Junior Grand Slam of Curling in Edmonton. Along the way, he’s duked it out with Joel Retornaz, a pro player from Italy, and Team Kim, the South Korean national squad.
Dreaming big
After mixing it with some of the sport’s biggest names this year, and fairing well, Nicholls said the experience has heightened his desire to, one day, turn pro.
“I’ve been thinking about my future in curling a lot – I had this moment at the Tankard where it kind of hit me that I was at the event to qualify for the Brier. It had never really set in before,” Nicholls said. “To be able to do that at such a young age, I had this moment of realization where it’s like ‘yes, I am a contender in this sport’.
“I could definitely see myself going pro, hopefully playing in the Brier. It’s going to take a few more years of hard work, but this year was definitely an opening of the door for me,” he added.
It was heartbreak for Nicholls and his Carleton teammates at the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) provincial championships, played Feb. 6-8, claiming silver at the event. The team had hoped to repeat as champions after winning gold in 2025.
There’s still plenty for the young curler to play for, with the Ontario U20 Curling Championships taking place in Waterloo Feb. 25 to March 1. He also competing in mixed doubles at the university level, with teammate Maya Sharpe.
