Bill Leaman

Bill Leaman is a founding President of the Trail Curling Association and is Past President, Secretary-Treasurer and Executive Member of the Trail Men's Curling Club. He has been a member of the Club for over 40 years.

Mr. Leaman is also Past President, Secretary-Treasurer and Executive Member of the West Kootenay Curling Association.

He has served as Secretary-Treasurer and Secretary Manager of the British Columbia Curling Association from 1966 to 1974 and from 1976 to 1979. He has also served as Director and Vice President of that body. Bill was made an Honourary Life Member of the B.C. Association in 1975 and given an additional honourarium in 1977.

Bill also served as President, Vice President and Executive Member of the Canadian Curling Association. He has represented the Association at the World Curling Federation meetings and was named an Honourary Life Member of the Association in 1977.

Mr. Leaman was elected as a Builder to the Canadian Curling Hall of Fame in 1977.

Bill was elected and appointed a member of the prestigious Governor-General's Curling Club in 1990 and he continues to serve as Western Canada's representative for this Club.

D.S. "Buzz" McGibney

Mr. McGibney was prominent in the Trail area in both curling and golf.

He moved to Trail in 1938 and was employed with Cominco Ltd. for 45 years before moving to White Rock, B.C. in 1986.

Buzz participated in five B.C. curling championship teams, the Canadian Seniors Championship team and a B.C. Masters Championship team.

In 1978, he was inducted into the Canadian Curling Hall of Fame.

Kathy Smiley

Kathy is being honoured for her success in Seniors Women's Curling.

Kathy has participated in competitve women's curling for many years. In 2004, her team won its first BC Seniors Women's Curling Championship and reached the final game at the Canadian Championships. In 2005, she won her second Provincial Championship and once again lost the Canadian Championships in the final game.

In 2006, she reached the Provincial Championships, but lost in the Semi-final round. However, in 2007, she again won the BC Championships, but lost the final game at the National Championships for the third time, 5-4 to Alberta.

As a Skip of BC's Champion teams, Kathy has won numerous awards. In 2004, she was presented the Sportsmanship Award at the National Championships. This award is given to the player who best combines playing ability and sportsmanship. In the 2005 BC Championships, she was presented with the Lottie Hill Award for Sportsmanship, voted on by her peers.

Melissa Soligo

Melissa Soligo was born on February 7th, 1969, in Trail.  She started her curling career at the age of 13 with the J.L. Crowe curling team as a skip. Melissa traveled to local bonspiels around the West Kootenays, and it was in 1984, at the age of 14, when she won the West Kootenay High School Championships.


In 1985, Melissa won both the East and West Kootenay Zone  Championships for the province and came in third in the  Provincial Championships. She also finished up sixth in the Juniors.


In 1986, she repeated her win at the West Kootenay Zones, and finished third at the Juniors.
In 1987, Melissa placed second in both High School and the Junior Zones.  In 1988, she joined the Vancouver Ladies Team which won the provincials, and continued on to the place fourth in the Canadian Championship. Melissa continued to compete competitively and went on to the Professional Circuit in 1988, filling the position of lead.
She won the Labatt's Crown Curling Championships and $6000, plus a trip to San Francisco. She also won the Canadian Airlines International Double Cash Spiel and $14,000.

In 1991 Melissa was a member of the Julie Sutton Rink which won athe Canadian Women's Championship, finished second in the World Curling Championship, and won a bronze medal in the Winter Olympics.

Reg Stone

Reg Stone was elected to the Canadian Curling Hall of Fame in March 1974.

He is an honorary member of the B.C. Curling Association and was inducted into the B.C. Sports Hall of Fame in 1984 as an Athlete/Builder in Curling.

Reg Stone Curling Rinks have participated in six Canadian Curling Championships, in which they came close to winning a number of times.

Reg has won a number of B.C. Senior Curling titles as a member of his brother's (Roy Stone) curling rinks.

1945 - 1949 B.C. Curling Champions: Reg Stone, Roy Stone, Scotty Ross, Hugh Miller, Pete McIntyre

1952 - 1953/1955 B.C. Curling Champions: Reg Stone, Roy Stone, Scotty Ross, Buzz McGibney, Hump McKay

1957 - 1962 B.C. Curling Champions: Reg Stone, Roy Stone, Buzz McGibney, Frenchy D'Amour, Ernie Gordon, Harvey McKay

Reg Stone was also an active golf player and golf course designer.

Stone Rink, winners of the Nelson and Trail Cups, 1944 From left: Roy Stone, Reg Stone, Fred Wendel, W.S. "Scotty" Ross

Roy Stone

Roy Stone was elected to the Canadian Curling Hall of Fame in March 1974.

He is an Honorary member of the BC Curling Association and was inducted into the B.C. Sports Hall of Fame in 1984 as an Athlete/Builder in Curling.

Roy has also won 7 BC Curling Championship titles as a member of his brother's (Reg Stone) curling rinks.

1978-79 B.C. Senior-Seniors Champions
Roy Stone, Reg Stone, John Cameron, John Jarret

1980 B.C. Senior-Seniors Champions
Roy Stone, Reg Stone, John Cameron, Art Defoe

1981 B.C. Senior-Seniors Champions
Roy Stone, Reg Stone, John Cameron, Bob Salmond

Roy is also an active golf player and golf course designer.

Terry Bublitz

Terry has been coaching curling for approximately 25 years at the local, provincial and national level and has competed at the provincial level for many years. He was a member of the 1971 Selkirk College Provincial Champions and began his coaching success with the 1982 and 1987 BC High School Provincial Champions and coached Team BC at the 1987 Canada Games.

Still with Youth Curling, he coached the 2004 Girls High School Curling Champions from J.L. Crowe Secondary School and was coach of the 2003 BC Provincial junior Ladies Curling Champions of the Trail Curling Club.

With the men, he has coached Team BC at the 2003 Brier in Halifax and returned to the Brier in 2005 with the Dean Horning Rink of the Trail Curling Club.

In 2002, he was selected as Trail's Sportsman of the Year.

Theo "Frenchy" D'Amour

In 1947, Theo "Frenchy" D'Amour and his rink won BC Curling Championships. Other members were Jim Mark, Fred Wendel, and Bob McGhie.

They went on to the Canadian Curling Championships that year and placed second.

The following year in 1948, the rink won both the B.C. and Canadian Curling Championships. This rink was the first one from B.C. to win the Canadian Championships.

In 1980, the rink was inducted into the BC Sports Hall of Fame as an Honoured team.

In 1949, Frenchy was a member of the team winning the Car Spiel in Edmonton (Frenchy, John Cameron, Fred Wendel, and Fred Tinglin).

In 1962, Frenchy was a member of the Reg Stone Rink (Reg and Roy Stone, Frenchy, Harvey McKay) which won the BC Curling Championships.