For the second straight year, a Centretown-based curling team has been crowned the Canadian women’s national champions.
The team of Lisa Weagle, Alison Kreviazuk, Emma Miskew, and skip Rachel Homan, who play out of the Ottawa Curling Club on O’Connor Street, registered a repeat win the Scotties Tournament of Hearts after beating Team Alberta 8-6 in the Feb. 9 final.
“My team played amazing all week,” says Kreviazuk, the team’s second. “We worked super hard this year and I’m really glad we were able to pull through.”
Not only did the team defend its national crown, this year the rink did it with a perfect 13-0 record.
The team is the first group to go undefeated at the tournament since 1985, and Kreviazuk, Miskew, and Homan each made the tournament all-star team at their respective positions.
Long-time TSN broadcaster Vic Rauter, who called the Scotties final, noted that he actually began hosting the Scotties telecast the next year in 1986, and that the Ottawa rink provided one of the most dominant performances he has seen during his 27 years of broadcasting the tournament.
“They just have an ability that is beyond many of the other teams. And you have to give them credit because they work at it and have great coaching,” says Rauter.
They’re coached by Earle Morris, a three-time competitor at the men’s national championships himself, who says he was thrilled with how well the team played.
“I thought they played exceptionally well,” says Morris. “It was a dominant performance and I’m really proud of them.”
Kreviazuk says the Scotties win was made even sweeter because of the disappointment of not qualifying for the Olympics after losing in the Roar of the Rings semifinal in December.
“It was unfortunate the way (the Olympic qualification) ended for us, but Scotties was the next goal on our list after missing out on the Olympics, and we wound up being able to stay motivated and did it,” she says.
Morris says the team was extremely keen to qualify for the Olympics, and admitted it was disappointing to come so close, especially considering how every player on the team did something to scale back their work lives to focus on curling.
Kreviazuk says she even quit her job as a car salesperson at the beginning of the summer to focus entirely on training for the Olympic qualifying.
“We’re really fortunate enough that since winning the Scotties last year, we now are eligible for federal funding,” she says. “It’s not a ton (of money) but it gets you by, and it allows you to focus on your sport and achieve the goals you have in mind.”
Morris says the team has been dominant since playing as kids, and says it’s great to see the junior success translate to the professional ranks.
Homan and Miskew are 24 years old, while Kreviazuk is just one year older at 25. Weagle is the veteran of the team at 28, and is the only one of the group who did not play on the same junior team, according to Morris.
Homan and Miskew won four consecutive Canadian bantam championships, with Kreviazuk being a part of three of the four wins, and later all three of the women were on the team that win the Canadian national junior championship in 2010.
Morris has coached Kreviazuk, Miskew, and Homan for a total of nine years dating back to their junior days.
Morris says winning when they’re young is great because of how difficult it becomes to balance curling with other important aspects of life when they get older.
“Life gets in the way. You start thinking about careers, and start having relationships, and having a house and kids to look after,” he says. “I’ve said to all of them, ‘Your time is now, don’t be looking at it thinking we can do this forever because there’s no guarantee that you can.’”
With the Scotties win, the team has a chance to continue that success at the world championships this March in Saint John, N.B.
After winning a bronze medal at last year’s event, coupled with the disappointment of not qualifying for the Olympics this year, Kreviazuk says she and her teammates are highly motivated to redeem themselves at this year’s world championships.
“We gave it our all, and we’re still going to give it our all in Saint John. It’s just a different goal we want to accomplish,” she says.