CREDIT: COURTESY OF FANSHAWE ATHLETICS
Fellow Fanshawe students can come out to cheer the Falcons when the college hosts the CCAA national curling championships next year.

Fanshawe College will be hosting the 2016 Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association national curling championships after it won the bid to host the event at the CCAA Winter Board Meetings on January 12 and 13 in Ottawa.

The college will be hosting the event March 23 to 26, 2016 at the Highland Curling Club in London, where eight women's and eight men's teams will compete. Fanshawe will be guaranteed a spot in the tournament for hosting the event.

“It's very exciting that we are hosting the 2016 CCAA Championships,” Falcons skip Shannon Kee said in an email. “I'm excited for the other colleges to come to London and witness firsthand how great and supportive Fanshawe is.”

While the Falcons will have home advantage, there are disadvantages to staying home. If students can fit classes into their schedules, they'll go to class.

“It's nice getting away from home,” Falcons Curling Coach Barry Westman said. “There's less distractions … When you're hosting the event, there's still time to go to classes and still time to take some exams during the event.”

“They're students first, and athletes second,” he said.

Hosting the championship will also be a lot of work for the college, and while the team's spot in the tournament is guaranteed in return, Fanshawe's manager of athletics says it won't be needing it.

“We have the best curling program in the country, so our curling program certainly [doesn't] need any assistance in getting into national championships,” Nathan Mc- Fadden said.

The Falcons' curling team will also be welcoming a new member next year: associate coach Jordan Ariss.

Ariss was named Fanshawe's Female Athlete of the Year in 2013 and 2012. She won two CCAA gold medals, an OCAA gold medal and an OCAA bronze medal. She was named to the CCAA and OCAA First Team All Star teams both years.

While Fanshawe has hosted a number of Ontario Colleges Athletic Association provincial championships in the past years, it has not hosted a CCAA championship in over 10 years. The last CCAA tournament Fanshawe hosted was the national soccer championships in 2004.

This year's CCAA curling championships will be held March 25 to 28 in Olds, Alberta, where both the men's and women's teams will be playing.

The Falcon's women's curling team won gold at the OCAA provincial championships this year, defending their title for the second time. The men's team placed third.

Both teams placed first at the 2012 CCAA national championships. The women's team won the gold in 2013, while the men's won the bronze.

“We got a really neat facility in London,” Westman said. “I think we could put on a really good show.”