Joey Payeur
It’s been a long time for Jenna Enge and, in her opinion, for female curlers from this part of the country.
The Devlin native, who now lives in Thunder Bay, will be part of the Sudbury-based rink skipped by Tracy Horgan that will be the first women’s team ever representing Northern Ontario at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts, which gets underway tomorrow in Moose Jaw, Sask.
“I’m really proud to represent Northern Ontario for the first time ever at the Scotties,” said Enge, who made it to the nationals with the Horgan rink in 2012 as Team Ontario.
“I think it’s about time we had that,” she added.
“Every other championship in men’s and junior curling had Northern Ontario included except for women’s curling,” Enge noted.
“Now it’s a true nationals where every province and territory will be represented.”
Horgan’s rink, which also features third Jennifer Horgan and lead Amanda Gates, won the inaugural Northern Ontario provincial Scotties title last month in Thunder Bay.
This year marked the first time Northern Ontario teams did not have to go into the Ontario Scotties to qualify for the nationals.
But the change also meant a change in format ahead of the main draw.
Horgan will take part in a three-team pre-qualification round (Nunavut declined its invitation) against Kerry Galusha (Northwest Territories) and Sarah Koltun (Yukon) that begins tomorrow with a two-day round robin.
The top two teams after the round-robin then will play in the pre-qualification final Saturday, with the winner being added to the main field for the Scotties, which also begins Saturday.
“First of all, I’m really excited to be going back to the Scotties, so it doesn’t matter to me about the relegation round,” stressed Enge, who skipped the Muskie girls’ curling team in the early 2000s that featured Tirzah Keffer at second—now the lead for Kendra Lilly’s Thunder Bay rink that lost to Horgan 4-3 in the provincial final.
“I think if we play our game, we’ll be all right,” she added.
“We played against [Galusha] before and have a good track record against her,” Enge said.
“[Koltun] we haven’t played as often but they have quite a bit of junior experience,” she noted.
“They’re not anyone to take lightly.”
There is no room for error in the two-day battle royale that Enge described as “cutthroat.” But the local product is pumped up about what the payoff could be for getting through.
“If we win our way in, we’ll definitely have an advantage because we’ll have two games under our belts already and the rest of the field will be just starting,” she reasoned.
“We’ll already be comfortable with the ice, which will be important with arena ice, where the rocks curl a lot more and react differently depending on how the size of the crowds affect the ice conditions,” she added.
Among the waiting field of challengers are some of Canada’s best-known women’s teams, not the least of which is two-time defending Scotties’ champ Rachel Homan of Ottawa, who once again will lead the Team Canada contingent as the reigning title-holders.
“They’re so consistent,” Enge said about the Homan rink.
“They’re a very driven team and their physical fitness is amazing.”
Other top contenders will include the current Olympic women’s champion, four-time Scotties’ winner, and 2008 world champion Jennifer Jones from Manitoba and two-time defending Alberta champ Val Sweeting.
Then there’s Stefanie Lawton, who will have a major home province advantage with the legion of Saskatchewan fans rooting on the four-time provincial rep.
The Horgan rink went 4-3 at the “Road to the Roar” pre-Olympic trial last year, then struggled at the provincials with a 5-4 mark that kept them out of the playoffs.
“We had just returned from winning a bonspiel in China two days earlier and we were pretty jet-lagged,” recalled Enge, who plays in the Tbaytel Men’s Major League of Curling as a second for skip Jessica Williams.
“But last year was about trying different things, including the pre-Olympic trials,” she noted.
“I’m not pushing the Scotties aside but it wasn’t a big priority for us.”
Now in their fifth year together, Enge credited the team dynamics of the Horgan rink as a big part of their success.
“We’ve been together so long, we know what each other is thinking out there,” she remarked.
“I know it’s cliché but we even finish each other’s sentences,” she chuckled.
There are many obstacles ahead in the next 11 days but Enge’s thoughts about being the first Northern Ontario women’s team to not only compete at—but win—the Scotties are straightforward.
“It would be so honouring,” she said.
“That’s the only word I can think of.”
Northern Ontario plays the Northwest Territories tomorrow at 7 p.m. and the Yukon on Friday at 8 a.m.
The Yukon and Territories then will square off at 3:30 p.m. on Friday.
The pre-qualification final is set for Saturday at 2 p.m., along with the first three games for the main field.
Should Horgan survive, she will battle Sweeting on Saturday at 7 p.m.
The Scotties final is set for Sunday, Feb. 22.
