Amanda Gates

Amanda Gates (born March 26, 1986, in Sudbury, Ontario) is a Canadian curler who currently coaches the Abby Deschene rinks on the World Curling Tour.

Gates began her bantam curling career representing Northern Ontario at the 2002 Ontario Winter Games in Guelph, Ontario.

Gates skipped a high school team to a city championship in 2004.

Gates went to play lead for the Team Horgan rink, who went on to represent Northern Ontario at the 2005, 2006 and 2007 Canadian Junior Curling Championships.

Their best finish was a tie for third place in 2006.

As a member of Team Horgan, continuing to play in the lead position, Gates competed in the 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 Ontario Scotties before breaking through in 2012 and defeating Rachel Homan to represent Ontario at the 2012 Scotties Tournament of Hearts in Red Deer, Alberta.

At this first appearance, they finished with a 4–7 record.

At this event, Gates won the Marj Mitchell Sportsmenship award.

Gates also joined the Laurentian University Varsity curling team in 2009 where Laurentian took a bronze medal at University Nationals in Montreal, Quebec.

In Gates' first appearance at the Scotties (2012 in Red Deer, Alberta), she won the Marj Mitchell Sportsmanship Award.

During the 2012–13 season, although Team Horgan was unsuccessful at the Ontario Scotties, they did win the AMJ Campbell Shorty Jenkins Classic.

The Fleury rink secured a spot at the 2013 Road to the Roar, the Olympic pre-trials event.

At the Road to the Roar, the team went 4–3 and lost the 'C' event final on last rock to Val Sweeting, who qualified for the Roar along with Renée Sonnenberg.

Fleury defeated the top two seeds at the event, Shannon Kleibrink and Laura Crocker.

Following the Pre-Trials, the team went undefeated at the Northern Ontario Scotties playdowns.

The team was selected to represent Canada at the third annual Yichun International Ladies Cup in Yichun, China from December 28, 2013 – January 1, 2014.

The team went 6–1 in the round-robin with their only loss coming from Silvana Tirinzoni of Switzerland in the opening draw.

The team defeated Wang Bingyu in the semifinal and Jiang Yilun in the final to win the event.

By finishing first at the playdowns, the team competed at the 2014 Ontario Scotties Tournament of Hearts in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario.

The team had a disappointing run at the provincials that year, giving up key steals in their losses to finish with a 5–4 record and ultimately missing the playoffs for a second consecutive year.

The team has had a successful start to their 2014–15 season, finishing third at the Stroud Sleeman Cash Spiel and qualifying for the playoffs of a Grand Slam event, the 2014 Curlers Corner Autumn Gold Curling Classic for a second time in their career making it to the quarterfinal before losing to former provincial rival Rachel Homan of Ottawa.

At the 2014 DEKALB Superspiel in Morris, Manitoba, the team lost their opening match to Colleen Kilgallen before winning their next eight games.

They defeated St. Vital's Jennifer Jones in the final and earned 22.5 CTRS Points for their win.

Just three weeks later, at the Curl Mesabi Classic, the Fleury rink finished first in their pool after the round-robin with a 3–1 record.

In the playoffs, they defeated Patti Lank in the semifinal and defeated Erika Brown in the final to claim the championship title.

After the conclusion of the 2014–15 season, Team Fleury announced that they would add Calgary's Crystal Webster to the lineup in a five-player rotation due to work commitments from Fleury's front end.

Gates used to play with Team Tracy Fleury (née Horgan) and in 2015, Team Horgan became the first women's team in the history of women's curling to represent Northern Ontario at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts.

At the 2015 Northern Ontario Scotties Tournament of Hearts, the Fleury rink became the first women's team to represent Northern Ontario at the Scotties.

The team finished the tournament with a perfect 5–0 record, defeating city rival Kendra Lilly 4–3 in a close match.

Team Fleury then had to win a relegation qualifier prior to the 2015 Scotties Tournament of Hearts in order to compete in the main tournament.

During the relegation round at the 2015 Scotties Tournament of Hearts, they defeated Kerry Galusha from the Northwest Territories 10–5 and then beat Sarah Koltun from the Yukon 7–5.

In the pre-qualification final, they once again defeated the team from Yellowknife, 7–6, securing the right to represent Northern Ontario in the main draw at the Scotties for the first time.

In the main event, they found some success defeating higher seeds such as Julie Hastings and Stefanie Lawton.

Headed into draw seventeen, the final draw before playoffs, Northern Ontario and Rachel Homan, Team Canada at the time, shared 6–4 records.

The winner of their game would determine the fourth seed for playoffs, and the loser would be eliminated.

After leading 4–2 after six ends, they would allow Homan to score two points in the seventh end to tie the game.

After a blank in the eighth, Fleury was heavy on a tap attempt in the ninth end and gave up a steal of two points.

Homan would run them out of stones in the tenth end to win 6–5.

Therefore, Northern Ontario finished fifth at the 2015 event with a 6–5 record.

The team found success early, advancing all the way to the semifinal of the 2015 Tour Challenge Grand Slam.