Two Lacombe Curling Club frequenters will be representing central Alberta in the 2020 Alberta Scottie’s Tournament of Hearts Ladies Curling Championships this week, which will be held in Okotoks from January 22nd to 26th. 

This is the third consecutive year Team Sherrer has competed in the provincial tournament, but each year it’s a little different. 

“We’ve kind of had a few new teammates along the way, but this year we have Rebecca (Boorse) as our alternate, we have Brenna (Bilassy) at lead, and Jenais (Dejong) at third, Marla (Sherrer) at skip, and I’m a second,” explained Julie Selvais. 

Selvais and Sherrer grew up curling in the Lacombe Curling Club from juniors and to the professional level. Together, Selvais says they’ve probably spent 15 to 18 years curling. 

Now they play in the Monday night Super League where members often give them best wishes for the tournaments they enter.

“Lacombe Curling Club is great at supporting us. Everyone’s so great cheering us on and everything like that. It’s so nice to see. Even the local businesses really support us a lot as well,” said Selvais. 

The connections to the local club have made finding ice time easy for Team Sherrer, added Selvais.

The team’s previous lead, Adrienne Winfield decided to extend her maternity leave. This year, Bilassy has taken over Winfield’s position. Despite this change, the team is still strong as ever and has seen much success this year. 

“This year, we’ve done about six events and we qualified for three of them. We won the Avonair Bonspiel that was at the beginning of the year.  We qualified in both Calgary and Grande Prairie. In playdowns, we won three games out of the 'A' event, and so, that qualified us for provincials this year,” Selvais explained.

In their third year at the Scotties Tournament, Selvais said by now the team has adjusted to the audiences that gather to watch the games, but it's still exciting to play for a crowd. 

Heading forward, Selvais says the team is willing to go as far they can - even nationals, if possible. 

“There are eight teams in this event and then the winner is Team Alberta at the Scotties. So, we’ll do the best we can. It’s going to be a pretty big competition there, too. We have our work cut out for us.”

A second team of Lacombe curlers will also be present at the tournament: Team Kaufman, comprised of Skip Nicky Kaufman, Third Pamela Appelman, Second Kim Curtin and Lead Stephanie Enright. 

The teams will play two games a day until playoffs on Saturday, January 25th. To stay up to date with scores click here.