‘It’s our time to shine’

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This article was published 25/01/2024 (814 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Kristy Watling doesn’t need to be reminded about the highs and lows of playing at the Manitoba Scotties Tournament of Hearts.

Two years ago, the East St. Paul skip turned heads by reaching the provincial final before falling to Altona’s Mackenzie Zacharias.

Last year, Watling fell much shorter of the ultimate goal. She fizzled out in the round-robin stage with a 1-4 record.

“We were hoping to build off our success of making the final the year previous, but we travelled a lot more and we were constantly changing our lineup,” said Watling.

“And then we had a player player (third Hailey Ryan) come to us about a third of a way into the season and say ‘I don’t want to do this anymore.’ So, we had to take a step back midway through our season and kind of regroup and we just never really found our footing last year at all. It really showed in the results.”

To get back to contender status, Watling made a big splash in the off-season by adding Ottawa’s Emily Deschenes — an accomplished junior skip — to a team that already featured third Laura Burtnyk and lead Sarah Pyke.

Deschenes, who turned 21 on Christmas, has built herself an impressive resume in her young career with silver medals at the 2019 U18 nationals and 2022 Canadian junior championships. This is her first full season on the women’s tour, but she’s had success in the past against top talent as she once beat Jennifer Jones 6-4 in the opening draw of the Stu Sells Team Toronto Tankard when she was 17 years old.

Watling, 28, and her import had never crossed paths before joining forces. In fact, their partnership was born through social media.

They’re currently 2-2 at this week’s 12-team provincials in Morden inside the Access Event Centre. They started Thursday with a 9-5 win over Carman’s Shaela Hayward (2-2) before a late afternoon setback in a 10-4 loss to Assinboine’s Beth Peterson (3-1). Kaitlyn Lawes — who beat Watling 10-1 on Wednesday — sits on top of Pool A with a 4-0 record.

“We were looking for someone to play second on the team and we kind of threw some names out there, but no one really got us excited,” Watling said. “And then John Cullen (a former competitive curler originally from Ontario) put out this tweet saying, ‘Emily Deschenes is looking for a competitive women’s team to join.’ We saw the tweet, had a chat about it and knew Emily has had great success in juniors, so, we wanted to have a phone call with her to see if all our goals align and if it makes sense for her to come to Winnipeg.”

Everyone clicked right away, and Deschenes agreed to take the plunge.

“It’s been fun. I skipped all of my junior career, so going from skip to playing second and sweeping was a little bit of a challenge at the beginning, but I’ve grown into my position and I love playing second now,” said Deschenes.

“This is my first provincial Scotties as a curler, and being in Manitoba and playing at provincials is nice because the Manitoba teams are at the top so it’s a nice challenge to play and gain as much experience as I can.”

Deschenes takes classes online through Algonquin College which has allowed her to rotate back and forth from Winnipeg — where she stays with Pyke — and Ottawa.

“She’s definitely brought some youth. She’s been a refreshing set of eyes especially when she hasn’t played on the women’s tour,” said Watling.

“After you’ve played years and years, you get excited bringing someone new and kind of just showing them the ropes. It’s really put a fire underneath our ass.”

They’ve gone 36-25 this season with three finals appearances on the Manitoba Curling Tour and a first-place finish at the MCT Showdown in November. They’re the No. 5 seed in Morden as they’re ranked 20th in the Canadian Team Ranking System.

Watling, who is still searching for her first national Scotties berth, has been one of the most competitive skips in Manitoba in recent years. She’d be a solid recruit for a team on the Grand Slam tour, but she’s happy where she is.

“A big thing for me has always been team dynamics. I really want to love the people I’m curling with on and off the ice. That’s a big component for me,” said Watling.

“I feel like I’m the most successful when I’m curling with people I like and enjoy being around, so I think that’s the biggest thing on why I don’t really change up my team too often.”

A lot of lessons have been learned at the last two provincials and Watling feels ready to put them to good use.

She’ll advance to the six-team championship round with a win over Emma Jensen (1-3) of the Heather Curling Club at 9 a.m. Friday.

“I think that it’s our time to shine.”

taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca

X: @TaylorAllen31