John Willsey is a Canadian curler from

Orillia Orillia is a city in Ontario, Canada. It is in Simcoe County between Lake Couchiching and Lake Simcoe. Although it is geographically located within Simcoe County, the city is a single-tier municipality. It is part of the Huronia region of ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

. He currently skips his own team out of

Oakville, Ontario Oakville is a town in Halton Region, Ontario, Canada. It is located on Lake Ontario between Toronto and Hamilton. At its 2021 census population of 213,759, it is Ontario's largest town. Oakville is part of the Greater Toronto Area, one of the ...

Career

Youth

In 2012, Willsey won the Ontario Bantam Mixed championship, playing third for Sarah Nuhn. While attending the

University of Waterloo The University of Waterloo (UWaterloo, UW, or Waterloo) is a public research university with a main campus in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is on of land adjacent to "Uptown" Waterloo and Waterloo Park. The university also operates ...

, Willsey skipped the Waterloo men's curling team for three of the four years on the team. In his first year on the team, he won a silver medal for Waterloo at the 2016

OUA Oua is an islet on the north-east of Nukufetau atoll, Tuvalu, next to Lafanga Lafanga or Lafaga is an islet of Nukufetau, Tuvalu. The traditional history of Nukufetau recalls that in order to protect the atoll from raiders from Tonga Tong ...

championship and led Waterloo to a 2-5 record at the 2016 CIS/CCA Curling Championships, the national university championship. After winning a bronze medal at the

championship, he led Waterloo once again at the 2018 national university championship. There, Waterloo would finish the round robin in first place with a 5-2 record. In the playoffs however, Waterloo lost both of their games, and settled for fourth place. Willsey was named as a second team All-Canadian at the event. Following the event, Willsey was named OUA athlete of the week. After graduating from Waterloo, Willsey was awarded with the Warrior Shield of Excellence Award. In his fifth year of eligibility, beginning in 2019, Willsey began curling for

Wilfrid Laurier University Wilfrid Laurier University (commonly referred to as WLU or simply Laurier) is a public university in Ontario, Canada, with campuses in Waterloo, Brantford and Milton. The newer Brantford and Milton campuses are not considered satellite campuses ...

, playing third on the team, which was skipped by Matthew Hall. The team went on to win the 2020 U Sports/Curling Canada University Curling Championships for Laurier.

Men's

Following his strong run in university curling, Willsey and his rink of

Connor Lawes Connor Lawes (born July 14, 1996) is a Canadian curler from Sundridge, Ontario. He currently plays third on Team Pat Ferris. Career Lawes played for skip Tanner Horgan and represented Northern Ontario at the 2015 Canadian Junior Curling Cham ...

, Robert Currie and

Evan Lilly Evan Lilly (born March 26, 1989, in Greater Sudbury, Sudbury, Ontario) is a Canadian curling, curler from Sarnia, Ontario. He is currently the alternate on Team Pat Ferris. Career Lilly won the 2005 Northern Ontario bantam championships and the ...

had a strong season on the 2018-19 World Curling Tour. The team won two tour events that season, the Stroud Sleeman Cash Spiel and the

Huron ReproGraphics Oil Heritage Classic The Huron ReproGraphics Oil Heritage Classic is a bonspiel part of the men's Ontario Curling Tour. The event was introduced in 2012 and is held annually in October, at the Sarnia Golf & Curling Club in Point Edward, Ontario. It became a World Curl ...

. The team finished the season in 17th place on the

Canadian Team Ranking System The Canadian Team Ranking System (CTRS) is a point system used by Curling Canada to rank men's and women's curling teams across Canada. They are determined through points earned in various curling bonspiels held worldwide throughout the season. CT ...

. Willsey and his rink was one of the two qualifying teams at the 2019

CurlON CurlON (formerly the Ontario Curling Association) is the governing body of curling in Southern Ontario. Northern Ontario is governed by the Northern Ontario Curling Association (NOCA). The CurlON sends a team to represent Team Ontario at all majo ...

Men's Cash Spiel #1, which qualified his rink for the

2020 Ontario Tankard The 2020 Ontario Tankard, the provincial men's curling championship for Southern Ontario, was held from January 28 to February 2 at the Ed Lumley Arena in Cornwall, Ontario. The winning John Epping rink represented Ontario at the 2020 Tim Hortons ...

, Willsey's first men's provincial championship. At the Tankard, he led his rink to a 4–4 record, missing the playoffs. Willsey would later form a team with Brady Lumley, Matthew Garner and Spencer Dunlop. The team won the 2022 St. Thomas Curling Classic, and their success on tour during the

2022–23 curling season The 2022–23 curling season began in June 2022 and ended in May 2023. ''Note: In events with two genders, the men's tournament winners will be listed before the women's tournament winners.'' World Curling Federation events Source: Championshi ...

qualified the rink for the

2023 Ontario Tankard The 2023 Ontario Tankard, (known as the Port Elgin Chrysler 2023 Ontario Tankard Presented by Bruce Power for sponsorship reasons), the provincial men's curling championship for Southern Ontario, was held from January 24 to 29 at The Plex (Port E ...

Personal life

Willsey attended Park Street Collegiate Institute, and then Orillia Secondary School. He is in the

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...

program at Laurier. He took civil engineering while in

Waterloo, Ontario Waterloo is a city in the Canadian province of Ontario. It is one of three cities in the Regional Municipality of Waterloo (formerly Waterloo County). Waterloo is situated about west-southwest of Toronto. Due to the close proximity of the ci ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Willsey, John Living people Canadian male curlers Curlers from Ontario People from Orillia University of Waterloo alumni Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks players Year of birth missing (living people)