SYLVAN LAKE — Chris Schille can take solace in the fact that he has twice realized a lifelong dream.
Tossing second stones for Brad Gushue’s Newfoundland crew, Schille played in the 2007 and 2008 Brier in Hamilton and Winnipeg. The experiences were bitter-sweet, considering the Newfoundland champs lost the ‘07 final to Glen Howard and dropped a playoff tiebreaker to Bob Ursel of B.C., but it didn’t sour the Red Deer curler on the notion of one day returning to the big show.
“Once you’re there you really want to get back, and it would be nice to go out of Alberta,” Schille said Wednesday at the Sylvan Lake Curling Club, where his foursome — registered out of the Crestwood Club in Edmonton — was 0-2 on the opening day of the provincial mixed championship.
“However long guys like (Kevin) Koe and (Kevin) Martin decide to play is going to make it that much tougher, but they won’t be around forever.”
Schille, 27, and the second on his mixed squad, DJ Kidby, competed in this year’s Northern Alberta Curling Association men’s playdowns with Adam Enright and Jeff Erickson. With Schille calling the shots, the rink was successful at the district shootout in Leduc and then lost in the C-event finale of the NACA finals at Wetaskiwin, in the process narrowly missing a berth in the provincials at Olds.
Schille played two seasons with the Gushue rink, returning home in 2008.
“It was a residency issue,” he explained. “It wasn’t going to work any longer unless I officially moved there, which wasn’t an option for me.”
Red Deer residents Schille and Kidby joined forces with Kaitlyn Lawes of Edmonton and Lauren Turnquist of Calgary and played their way into this year’s Alberta mixed event, which concludes with Sunday’s 2 p.m. championship final.
“This was just our sixth game together, but when we look at our team on paper we think we should win here this week,” said Schille, a former Alberta junior champion, following a 6-4 loss to Les Rogers of Edmonton in the opening draw.
A slow start eventually caught up to the Schille foursome in the afternoon contest. Rogers led 3-1 after five ends, and although Schille and his rinkmates battled back to assume a 4-3 lead, they gave up a single point in each of the last three ends en route to defeat.
“Our first five ends were less than par by our standards, way less than par, and we were still in the game and managed to have a shot to win,” said Schille. “We also had troubles that way at the (NACA finals), where we gave up a deuce in the first end of almost every game. And yet we never ended up playing 10 ends.
“We have a tendency to finish strong, but we have to try and start a little better and then take it from there.”
Schille started better in the evening draw — scoring a single on the first end — but eventually dropped a 6-5 decision to Jessie Kaufman of Edmonton. The Schille foursome will face Tim Krassman of Medicine Hat in today’s 1 p.m. draw.
Krassman sits at 1-1 after losing 7-6 to Karen Powell of Sexsmith and dumping Jeff MacPheat of Valleyview 10-4.
Dave Manser of Lethbridge is the only unbeaten rink after two draws following 10-7 and 10-4 wins over Kory Kohuch of Lethbridge and Powell. In Wednesday’s other games, MacPheat defeated Kaufman 5-3 and Kohuch ripped Rogers 10-1.
gmeachem@www.reddeeradvocate.com