Photo: Facebook/Team Cotter/Cotter

Vernon’s father-daughter curling duo have slid into the playoffs at the 2025 Canadian Mixed Doubles Curling Trials in Nova Scotia.

Jim Cotter, 50, and Jaelyn Cotter, 24, from the Vernon Curling Club have qualified for the playoffs with a final 4-3 round robin score for the first part of the trials.

“The games have been so close and such good battles too, we’ve had some really good games,” said Jaelyn.

The pair started the trials off strong winning their first two games, but went on to lose their next three games before winning the last two games of the first part of the trials.

“It was good to bounce back, we obviously started out good and then a few in the middle there, dad didn’t play so well and didn’t give the kid too many shots – zero shots in many cases,” said Jim.

The pair have said playing in the trials has been all the more special by playing with each other.

“It’s been so exciting, what an experience – especially doing it with my dad. It’s so cool,” said Jaelyn.

“It’s just so fun to go out there and play against the best teams in Canada.”

Team Cotter/Cotter will be back on the ice tomorrow at 10 a.m. PST.

Following the playoffs, a gold medal match will take place Jan. 4.

The winning team will move onto compete at the 2025 World Mixed Doubles Championship April 26 to May 3 in Fredericton, N.B.

That event will also decide most of which countries will compete at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy – if Canada qualifies for the Games it will be the Trials winner from this Liverpool event who will wear the Maple Leaf in Italy.