Brook Calibaba's rink knows what it's all about, so he and his Kamloops Curling Club mates shouldn't be at all intimidated when the B.C. junior curling championships open today at the Victoria Curling Club.

"I think we've played every one of the teams, either in the Rick Cotter spiel that is here or last year in provincials," Calibaba said before heading to Victoria. "We'd like to win and go to nationals. That's our main goal right now."

A year ago, the rink, then skipped by Kael Kristjanson, went 3-4 in the round-robin portion of the eight-team competition and didn't make the playoffs.

Since then, the rink members have done some juggling. Calibaba, 17, moved up from second to throw skip rocks, with Spencer Holden, 20, at third, Kristjanson, 17, at second and Alex Nicholson, 17, at lead. Braden Krenz is the fifth, while Gailya Wasylik does the coaching.

"I skipped when I was younger and then played second for Kael last year," Calibaba explained. "This year, we all decided I was going to skip, and everyone was quite agreeable."

The Calibaba rink qualified for provincials by winning the C event at a Region 3, 4 and 7 competition in Osoyoos.

The rink, according to Calibaba, actually was put together by Brenda Nordin.

"She was already coaching a couple of teams," Calibaba said, "and didn't want to bring on another team. She found Gailya for us and she took over the role."

Yes, Calibaba added, it has been a successful relationship.

Holden and Kristjanson actually had curled together three years ago, and hooked up again last season for provincials when the rink needed to fill a sudden vacancy.

"Kael knew that Spencer would like to curl and one of our players dropped out when we were going to provincials," Calibaba recalled. "We called Spencer up and he said he would play and we decided to make that our full team for this year."

Due to various commitments, the rink hasn't had a whole lot of practice time together, but Calibaba feels sharp after throwing at the club "every day that I can."

Calibaba said the rink has played games every Tuesday and Thursday since early November.

The Kamloops rink is scheduled to open play today, 3:30 p.m., against Patrick McEachran of the North Shore Winter Club.

The round-robin runs through Friday, with the final set for Saturday, 1:30 p.m.

Included in the field are three other skips who were there a year ago - Cameron de Jong of the host club, who has a whole new rink with him; Josh Hozack, also from the host rink, who lost to Vernon's Jonathan Gardner in last year's championship game; and, Justin Nillson of Kelowna.

Also there will be rinks skipped by Brandon Emslie of Kelowna, Chris Haynes of Nelson and Tyler Klymchuk of Langley.

You will be able to follow the Calibaba rink at www.playdowns.com, or watch video of its games at www.qik.com/stnich.

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Corryn Brown and her Kamloops rink will begin pursuit today of the championship that barely eluded their grasp a year ago.

Brown, with third Erin Pincott, second Samantha Fisher and lead Sydney Fraser, will open the B.C. junior women's curling championship today at the Victoria Curling Club.

The Kamloops girls, all 16 years of age, are coached by Ken Brown and Brian Fisher.

Last year, at the North Shore Winter Club, Brown dropped a 6-3 decision to Victoria's Dailene Sivertson in the championship final. Sivertson completed her junior eligibility last season.

The rink's first game is against Kesa Van Osch of the Nanaimo Curling Club today at 3:30 p.m. While Brown went 5-2 in the round-robin last year, Van Osch was 3-4.

The round-robin schedule runs through Friday, with the championship final set for Saturday at 1:30 p.m.

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The Canadian junior championships are to be decided in Napanee, Ont., Feb. 4-12.