A local team of young curlers will be on their way to Timmins, Ontario from February 5th to 11th to compete in the 2023 U18 Curling Championship. Team DeSchiffart is currently practicing regularly in preparation.  

The Team of young ladies includes Natalie Cholin of Sherwood Park who is Lead, Abby Whitbread of Lacombe who is Second, and sisters, Morgan, Emma, and Rhiley DeSchiffart who are Third, Skip, and Alternate respectively. The team is also coached by Mark DeSchiffart who is also Morgan, Emma, and Rhiley’s father.  

Team DeSchiffart has been curling together on the Alberta Junior Curling Tour since September. They qualified for Nationals by collecting points throughout their season and after a couple nail-biter provincial games in Cochrane in early January.  

“We started off our weekend going 0 and 3 and kind of lost all hope of going to nationals. But we pulled up our socks and won the next five games and made it into the semifinals, which pushed up our points to get us to be able to get that second birth,” said Morgan.  

She admitted that nerves were running high following the provincial tournament.  

“We had to wait on the final to see the results to see if we would get the points spot or not. There was a lot of sitting at home biting our nails just hoping for the outcome that would send us to Nationals,” she added.  

Looking towards Nationals now, Morgan says there is a lot of excitement building up for the team. The Team is practicing at least two to three times a week. Sometimes even alongside 2019 Brier Champion Darren Moulding.  

“Today, we actually played a short two end game against Darren Moulding. He curled in the Grand Slam last weekend. Curling against him just like kind of puts us against high level people. Then we're just throwing a ton of rocks and critiquing anything that needs critiquing and just building our confidence, really,” explained DeSchiffart.  

Moulding also works as an ice maker at the Lacombe Curling Club and has helped Team DeSchiffart find ice time among several other supports.  

Team DeSchiffart is hosting a provincial send-off on Sunday, January 20 at the Lacombe Curling Club Lounge. There will be pizza and silent auctions to bid on in support of their journey, lodgings, and food in Ontario. Admission to the event will $20.  

You can continue to support Team DeSchiffart by visiting their Facebook page here.