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Meet the Teams: Northwest Territories, Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick
MEET THE TEAMS COMPETING AT THE 2024 SCOTTIES TOURNAMENT OF HEARTS
The 2024 Scotties Tournament of Hearts is slated for Feb. 15-24 at the WinSport Event Centre in Calgary. Eighteen women’s teams will compete in the national curling championship.
Tickets for the 2024 Scotties Tournament of Hearts can be purchased at https://www.curling.ca/2024scotties/tickets/
Team Northwest Territories
It’s true, some things in life are guaranteed, like death, taxes and a Koe appearing in a national curling championship. If it’s not Kevin or Jamie Koe, then it’s sister Kerry Galusha competing in yet another Scotties Tournament of Hearts.
The now 46-year-old Northwest Territories skip will make her remarkable 17th player appearance (excluding alternates) at this year’s national women’s event, just four behind all-time leader Colleen Jones’s impeccable 21 trips.
Galusha’s attempt at keeping up with the Jones girls continues to be on an upward trajectory as she now sits third in all-time Scotties’ appearances behind the leader Jones (21) and Jennifer Jones (18).
Galusha, who also competed in two pre-qualifying rounds at the Scotties (which do not officially count as a tournament appearance), once again leads teammates Jo-Ann Rizzo (last-rock thrower), third Margot Flemming and second Sarah Koltun into the 2024 Scotties. Galusha calls the game and throws lead rocks.
Rizzo, who joined Galusha four seasons prior, is also a veteran, participating in more than a dozen Ontario Scotties events. She is a former provincial mixed champion and twice qualified for the Canadian Curling Trials – the first in 2005 as a skip and the second in 2013 while playing with Sherry Middaugh and finishing as a runner-up.
Rizzo, who will be competing in her fifth-straight Scotties, also won three provincial senior curling championships in 2016 and 2017 and 2022 in Ontario, finishing fourth, second and third, respectively, at the national championships. She also coached the U.S. team at the World Senior Curling Championships in 2017.
Galusha ranks near the Top 10 in most games played at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts. She is the younger sister of four-time Montana’s Brier champion, Kevin, and twin of Jamie, who has also represented the NWT with 16 Brier appearances. Kevin is currently coaching Galusha’s team.
This will be Flemming’s fourth-straight Scotties, while Koltun competes in her ninth national women’s championship.
The Yellowknife-based team – which has Shona Barbour at alternate – remains busy, having played in 46 games this season, winning 26, while reaching the finals of the Stu Sells Brantford NISSAN Classic and semi-finals of the Curling Stadium Alberta Tour Kickoff. At Territorial playdowns, Galusha defeated Sharon Cormier 8-3 in the final to cap a perfect week at 7-0.
Team Nova Scotia
It’s been 10 years, but Heather Smith will return to the Scotties Tournament of Hearts as a skip.
The veteran curler, who claimed a bronze medal at the 2011 Scotties and the 2013 Canadian Curling Trials, will make her eighth appearance at the national championship. It will be her second trip in a row as she played as an alternate for Andrea Kelly of New Brunswick in 2023. She was also an alternate for Rachel Homan at the 2013 Trials.
Smith, who throws third stones, is joined by last-rock thrower Jill Brothers, second Marie Christianson, lead Erin Carmody and alternate Taylour Stevens. The team is coached by the all-time leader in Scotties appearances, Colleen Jones, who has won six national women’s championships.
Smith, of the Halifax Curling Club, has previously represented New Brunswick and has two bronze medals from the Canadian Mixed Doubles Championship in 2013 and 2014 with Mark Dacey and John Morris, respectively. She was the first New Brunswick junior to win a New Holland U21 Canadian Championship back in 1991 and placed fifth at Worlds.
Smith was also a member of Grant Odishaw’s 1994 Canadian Mixed championship team and represented NB four times at that national competition. She added four more provincial mixed titles in Nova Scotia with Dacey as skip and claimed the Canadian crown in 2002.
Brothers will compete in her eighth Scotties and second in a row as she played second for Kelly in 2023 in New Brunswick. She was a member of the victorious junior team at the 2004 New Holland U21 championship and added a silver at the World Juniors.
Christianson will also make her eighth trip to the national women’s championship (and sixth straight), all seven previous visits appearing in Prince Edward Island colours, mostly as vice-skip for Suzanne Birt.
Carmody last appeared at the Scotties in 2021, with this being her fourth trip to the national women’s event. In 2010 she was a silver medallist, throwing final stones for skip Kathy O’Rourke, who threw second. The team lost the final to Jennifer Jones, but Carmody was named the Sandra Schmirler Award winner as the most valuable player.
Carmody is a three-time provincial junior champion from Prince Edward Island and played third for Brett Gallant’s victorious 2012 provincial mixed championship team.
This will be Stevens’ first trip to the Scotties, but she is a former 2022 New Holland Canadian U21 champion and won a bronze medal at the 2019 Canada Winter Games.
At provincials, Team Smith defeated defending NS champion Christina Black in a tight final.
“It’s really, really special because I didn’t think I’d be back playing. These girls said, ‘You should play with us next year.’ So I’m excited to be here. We worked really hard this year and we’ve tried a lot of things to figure out what the winning combination would be with these amazing talented players. We figured it out and I’m proud of us and really excited to be going back to the Scotties,” Smith said after the provincial win.
Team Saskatchewan
Youth has been served on the Saskatchewan women’s curling scene.
In just their second appearance at the Viterra Scotties, 22-year-old skip Skylar Ackerman and her Nutana Curling Club rink out of Saskatoon – consisting of vice-skip Ashley Thevenot, second Taylor Stremick and lead Kaylin Skinner – are provincial champions.
Team Ackerman – the youngest team in the Viterra field – defeated Nancy Martin’s rink 10-9 in an extra end in to claim its first provincial women’s crown in Tisdale. The foursome recorded three-enders in the third, sixth and ninth ends before using the hammer for the victorious single in the 11th.
Ackerman was the alternate at the 2023 Scotties with skip Robyn Silvernagle. Previously she was a silver medallist at the 2018 Canadian U18 Curling Championships and competed at the 2019 Canada Winter Games and she skipped the Host team at the 2019 New Holland Canadian U21 event.
Thevenot won the Saskatchewan junior championship in 2020, defeating Ackerman’s team – which included Stremick – in the final.
Not well known nationally, Team Ackerman has been busy in 2023-24, racking up a 36-14 record overall, including the 6-1 run at provincials, with the only loss there to Silvernagle. The team is on a strong run, having won the Nutana SaskTour women’s Spiel in late November; the SaskTour Women’s Players Championship in early January and now the Viterra Scotties. That stretch included a win-loss record of 17-2.
“I just appreciate them so much, they work so hard and they’re my best friends on and off the ice and I can’t wait to go represent Saskatchewan with them in Calgary,” Ackerman said on the CurlSask broadcast. “We’re just trying to stay in the moment, but we’re really pumped to win the green (jackets) and represent Saskatchewan.”
The team is coached by Peter Ackerman and Scotties veteran Amber Holland will be the team’s alternate.
Team New Brunswick
With Andrea Kelly moving on to compete in Northern Ontario, it opened the door for teams in New Brunswick and Melissa Adams (nee McClure) wasted little time barging through.
Adams and her Capital Winter Club rink in Fredericton – consisting of vice-skip Jaclyn Crandall, second Molli Ward, lead Kendra Lister and alternate Kayla Russell – defeated Moncton’s Sylvie Quillian (nee Robichaud) 7-4 to earn the provincial berth to the Scotties Tournament of Hearts.
It will be Adams’ fifth trip to the women’s national event, having first appeared as an alternate for Kelly in 2009. She was a skip in the pre-qualifying event in 2017, played vice-skip for Quillian in 2018 and returned to skip in the Scotties in 2021, where she finished 3-5. In 2017, Adams was 3-0 in pre-qualifying before losing the final to Kerry Galusha of the northwest Territories, making 2017 an unofficial trip to the Scotties.
Crandall was also vice-skip for Adams in 2021 and Lister also appeared as lead for that team and in 2018 for Quillian. Ward previously played on the Mount Allison University team.
Tickets for the 2024 Scotties Tournament of Hearts can be purchased at https://www.curling.ca/2024scotties/tickets/