Carman curler completes provincial championship hat trick

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This article was published 21/03/2024 (857 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Shaela Hayward is running out of words — and shelf space.

The Carman teen continued her breakout season for the ages on the pebbled ice last weekend when she became the first Manitoban to win three provincial curling championships in the same season.

Hayward penned her name in Manitoba’s illustrious curling history after winning the mixed championship in Neepawa as the third on Ryan Wiebe’s team that went 6-2 in the qualification round before winning three straight in the playoffs.

Earlier in the 2023-24 competitive campaign, she skipped her hometown team of third Keira Krahn, second India Young and lead Rylie Cox to the U18 provincial title in January, a U18 Canadian crown in early February and the U21 provincials later that month before making history in the mixed tournament.

“It’s been absolutely crazy and just a season that I don’t think any of us expected,” the 17-year-old said Thursday. “I just keep telling people, ‘I don’t even know anymore, I don’t really know what to say about it anymore.’

“Our goal this year was to win U18 provincials and just make it to nationals, so to win the national — and then I didn’t even know I could do three provincials — but when I got the opportunity to play mixed, I took it and just ran with that.

“It’s been an incredible season.”

Hayward had never won a provincial tournament outside of high school before this season, though, she skipped Carman Collegiate to consecutive Manitoba High School Athletic Association championships from 2021-23.

“Talk about a phenomenal year,” said Craig Baker, executive director of Curl Manitoba. “I think it speaks volumes to our athletes and how they want to hone their craft. Once they get a taste of something, they just want to continue being better.

“Obviously, Shaela is a great example of that but in Manitoba right now we’re showing that in many of our athletes with our success on the national stage. Watching them progress over the last couple of years has been phenomenal.”

Hayward begins her quest for a fifth title of the year at the U21 national championship in Fort McMurray, Alta., on Sunday. Her confidence is sky-high at the moment, but the skip has remained even-keeled ahead of her final bonspiel of the season.

“We’re going in without expectations,” Hayward said. “We want to represent our province well and hopefully make some good shots out there. Anything can really happen, we’ve seen that this year with all the success we’ve had.”

Hayward, Krahn and Cox have curled together for 12 years and brought on Young five years ago.

There’s no doubt why they’ve struck success, in Hayward’s mind: “Our team chemistry. We’ve been curling together since we’ve all started curling. This has been our only team, I’ve only ever curled with these girls and we’re best friends on and off the ice.”

joshua.frey-sam@freepress.mb.ca

X: @jfreysam