Local U18 curlers Team DeSchiffart will be heading to Ottawa as Team Alberta 1 for the U18 Curling Championships which kick off on Feb. 4.
Team Whitbread, of Lacombe, will be jetting off to nationals as well as Team Alberta 2.
Both teams play out of the Lacombe Curling Club.
Team DeSchiffart includes Morgan and Emma DeSchiffart of Ponoka County and Emma and Sarah Yarmuch (who are from Sherwood Park).
The team is coached by Mark DeSchiffart.
They recently took part in the Curling Alberta U18 Provincials which were held at Sylvan Lake.
They were triumphant through the event, not losing a single game and landing with a score of 73 points.
“We only had 13 points that were scored against us,” she said. “We knew that the week was going to get harder as we went along, but we kept going and we just kept building from there,” she said.
“We trusted our training and it helped us to perform well, and to the level that we wanted to.
“My sister Emma and I went to nationals last year, and so for the two of us, it was about wanting to get back to that national stage, and wanting to see all of those people again.
“As for the Yarmuch sisters, they were so close last year. They had lost the final so they wanted to get there, too. For the four of us, that was our goal at the beginning of the season — to win provincials and to make it to the national stage,” she said.
This being Morgan’s and Emma Yarmuch’s last year as U18 curlers made it that much more important to land a spot at nationals as well, she said.
“I think it also played a factor — knowing that this was our last chance of making the U18 nationals, so we just pushed for it and it just came easily to us to perform under the pressure and to make it that far.”
This has been the first year for the two sets of sisters to join as a single team.
“Last year, after the season ended and everything had wrapped up, we knew that we wanted to form a team together because we had been playing against each other for so long. We all had the same goal in mind, too. So we pulled together, and it took off from there,” she said.
Meanwhile, the team is super excited for a week of stiff competition at the Ottawa nationals.
“Honestly, I’ve never been more excited for anything in my life,” said Morgan. “You split into three pools, and we play a seven-game round robin, and then it’s play-offs from there,” she said.
Morgan has been curling for about a dozen years now.
“Something that I’m looking forward to at nationals is having the crowd out there,” she said.
“At some of the bonspiels that we play, it’s just the curlers out on the ice and that is all you hear. But when you head to nationals, all of the fans are out there — there’s cheering and cowbells — it’s a completely different atmosphere,” she explained, adding that the charged atmosphere can also help to fuel one’s performance.
Meanwhile, the rewards of pursuing excellence in curling have been plentiful over the years.
“It has brought me a lot of friendships,” she said. “When playing competitively, you are surrounded by everyone who has the same goals and the same mindset. It’s also brought me a way to take my mind off of the stresses of school and life. When I’m curling, I’m just curling — nothing else matters.”
To keep up with Team DeSchiffart, you can find them on Facebook.