Eyamie gets the rookie experience

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This article was published 20/02/2017 (3161 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

ST. CATHARINES, Ont.— Of the three Manitobans wearing the buffalo jacket here, two are making their third run at a national women’s title. Only one member of the team, third Kate Cameron, is a proper Scotties rookie.

Yet there is at least one other Manitoban making her Canadian championship debut. It’ll be easy to spot her today when Manitoba plays Team Alberta; just look at who places the broom for Alberta skip Shannon Kleibrink.

Local curling fans may remember her as Lisa Fargey, once a top junior curler who went on to compete in four Manitoba Scotties. Today, nine years after she left Winnipeg, the name on the back of her jacket is Eyamie.

And her presence here on national ice, she laughed, is “19 years in the making.”

There have been some twists along the way. Eyamie left Winnipeg in the mid-2000s, taking a sojourn in Oklahoma and Texas before moving to Calgary in 2008. The southern states, she agreed, weren’t exactly curling havens.

“It’s non-existent,” she said. “I had called up Dallas, actually. They had ice on Sunday nights at 10 p.m. And it was on hockey ice, so not so good.”

Once settled in Alberta, Eyamie resumed playing. But by 2014, she was considering retirement; so was Kleibrink, a four-time Alberta champ and 2006 Olympian. They got to chatting, and decided they had a little more left in the tank.

Last year, they scooped up a young front end of lead Alison Thiessen and second Sarah Wilkes.

And they put together a fantastic run at the Alberta playdowns, twice beating grand slam fixture Val Sweeting to win the jacket.

Now, at age 39 and just a few years after considering stepping back from competition, Eyamie gets to savour the rookie experience.

“It’s amazing,” she said. “I’ve been on the other side. I’ve been a statisician, a volunteer and those kinds of things. It’s awesome being on the ice here. The fans are fantastic… it’s just such a wonderful event to be part of.”

Of course, this means the Manitoba-Alberta match at 1:30 p.m. CST could be bittersweet for Eyamie’s friends and family back in Winnipeg. But Eyamie is looking forward to facing off against her one-time home province.

After all, she pointed out, she’s known the Manitoba front end of Raunora Westcott and Leslie Wilson since they were in juniors, more than 20 years. “Lot of history there,” Eyamie said. “They’re great girls and I love to play against them.”

melissa.martin@freepress.mb.ca