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After a historic showing at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts this past week, Nova Scotian curlers say the future of the sport in the province is looking bright.
“Heroes were born this weekend that young curlers are going to look up to,” said Dan Baldwin, executive director of Curling Nova Scotia.
For the first time, two Nova Scotian teams made it into the playoffs of the Scotties, the Canadian women’s curling championship.
The two teams, Team Black and Team Stevens, faced each other Friday in the first round of the playoffs, with Team Black coming out on top. Team Black was later knocked out of the competition by a team from Alberta in the quarterfinals.
Team Einarson won the competition and will represent Canada at the women’s world championships in Calgary in March.
Despite not clinching the Scotties championship, Taylour Stevens, the skip of Team Stevens, said that both Nova Scotian teams have a lot to be proud of.
“We made a lot of noise across Canada and proved to ourselves that we needed to be, that we should be there,” she said. “And I’m so proud of us for that.”
‘Good teams make good teams better’
Stevens said the strong showing at the Scotties points to a high level of competition back home.
“There’s so much talent in Nova Scotia and good teams make good teams better,” she said. “There’s a lot of great curlers coming up behind us and we have a lot of success at the junior level every year. I’m so excited for what the future holds for us.”
Baldwin agrees. He said that having two local teams make it to the highest level of Canadian competition spotlights the potential of Nova Scotia curling.
“That’s what’s important to us,” he said. “Giving people reasons to join curling, knowing they have the pathway to represent Canada on an international stage through a fun and inclusive sport.”
He said that seeing Nova Scotia teams make history is a win for everyone in the province’s curling community.
“All of us are proud because we all feel like we’ve contributed in a way, whether it’s through volunteering at local clubs or volunteering to run events or volunteering to coach teams or being involved in setting up championship pathways,” he said.
“It’s a really fun example of Nova Scotia kind of coming together and you can see the results when we do that.”
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