Manitoba curler Alberta bound

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 17/02/2023 (1176 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

There are four teams from the Keystone Province at the 2023 Scotties Tournament of Hearts national women’s curling championship in Kamloops, B.C., but a small southern Manitoba town might be inclined to root for a squad from Alberta, instead.

That would be the Casey Scheidegger team from Lethbridge — Wild Card-2 — as third Kate Cameron hails from New Bothwell.

After spending the past three seasons with Edmonton’s Laura Walker, Cameron, who’s originally from Gillam, went to school in Winnipeg and lived in Thompson before moving to New Bothwell, joined forces with Scheidegger for the new quadrennial.

They lost a 9-8 heartbreaker to Kayla Skrlik in the final of last month’s Alberta provincials but earned one of the three wild-card spots at the national Scotties because of the squad’s No. 6 ranking in Canada.

The 18-team Canadian championship began with one draw Friday night and wraps up Sunday, Feb. 26.

“Kate’s very knowledgeable, so that’s obviously a huge asset,” Scheidegger, who’s playing in her third Scotties but first since 2019, told the Free Press on Friday. “She has a good strategic mind, so it’s really fun to talk strategy with her and then obviously, she makes a ton of shots. She has what you want from a teammate at this level.”

This is Cameron’s sixth trip to the national stage. Her first appearance came in 2017 when she represented Manitoba with import skip Michelle Englot. They dominated the round-robin that year, finishing 10-1 before beating Ontario’s Rachel Homan in the 1 vs. 2 Page playoff game. The Manitobans met Homan again in the final but fell 8-6 in an extra end.

“I think after that Scotties, I was actually probably realistic in thinking that I’m from Manitoba and it’s no gimme to get to the Scotties, so I think I kind of took (that run) as it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” said Cameron, 31.

“It’s never a guarantee to get to the Scotties and every time is just as special. I’m fortunate to have played in a few of them now, but you can never predict the kind of week you’re going to have.”

The following year, Englot and Cameron competed as part of Team Canada, replacing Homan’s crew which was away for the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang. Cameron spent the 2018-19 season with Winnipeg’s Allison Flaxey before aligning with Walker out of Alberta, and she’s been there ever since.

The team won bronze at the 2021 Scotties after losing to Kerri Einarson in the semifinals.

Gold is the only colour of Scotties medal Cameron is missing.

Walker no longer competes full time but is filling in for a pregnant Selena Njegovan on Kaitlyn Lawes’ team this week.

“I thought I’d be in Manitoba for a little while, but I enjoyed playing with Taylor McDonald (who played second for Flaxey) and after 2019 we were weighing our options. With her being in Alberta we could’ve gone either way, but we put Team Walker together out of Alberta and things just kind of worked out to stay there for a little bit longer,” said Cameron.

“It’s still weird to say I play for Alberta, but the actual logistics of being an import were very similar because I was up north for so long so I was kind of like an import already even though I was in Manitoba.”

Wild Card-2 hits the ice for its first test Saturday afternoon against a familiar foe: Meghan Walter of East St. Paul (Wild Card-3).

Scheidegger and second Jessie Haughian were unable to play the Grand Slam of Curling’s Masters in Oakville, Ont., in December, so at the last minute, Cameron asked Walter and lead Mackenzie Elias — who had just beaten Scheidegger en route to winning the DeKalb Superspiel in Morris — to fly out with her and McDonald 24 hours later to play the event out east. They ended up losing a tiebreaker to Chelsea Carey to miss the playoffs.

“(Walter and her teammates) are great girls,” said Cameron. “They’re young, they’re very talented and I’m sure they’re going to bring a great game against us.”

taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @TaylorAllen31