Excitement is building for the 2018 Viterra Curling Championship in Winkler. The provincial men's championship is now under 3 months away.
    
After huge success hosting the Provincial Scotties Women's Championship in 2015, the first time the city has hosted a curling event of that scale, the Viterra host committee is drawing on the knowledge it gained nearly 3 years ago.

Viterra Committee Chair, Louis Tanguay, who also chaired the committee for the Scotties in 2015, says planning is going well, and they are in a comfortable position being ahead of schedule on most things.  "We have a lot of returning committee chairs, so everybody's more familiar with the process, so it seems to be a little smoother."

"There's a lot of stuff that happens behind the scene," added Tanguay.  "Our communication with Curl Manitoba is pretty well on a daily basis...making sure what's supposed to happen, happens."

The number of teams participating in the Viterra Championship will be double from the Scotties. 32 teams will be in Winkler for the Viterra Championship, January 30th to February 4th.

The number of teams and draws will also make it necessary to have 5 curling sheets as opposed to 4 during needed for the Scotties.

Tanguay said getting all the volunteers in place is currently top of mind.

Sheila Reimer, chair of the volunteer committee says they will be hosting their first recruitment drive for volunteers Tuesday evening at the Winkler Curling Club, at 7 pm.
    
Currently, 126 people have stepped up to help with the championship, and Reimer says they hope to get a total of 300 volunteers by mid-December.