Joey Payeur
Lisa Penner will be the voice of experience on her rink next week.
The Fort Frances resident is playing third for the Peggy Taylor rink, based out of Kenora, as they represent Northern Ontario at the Canadian Senior Curling Championships in Edmonton.
The rink, which also features second Colleen Poschner and lead Tracy Stasiuk, earned its national berth after rallying to defeat the Janice Vettoretti foursome (Sudbury) 2-1 in the best-of-three senior women’s provincials Feb. 21-22 in Kapuskasing.
Penner is the only one of her quartet to have a curling nationals appearance under her belt after playing second for Kathie Jackson’s Fort Frances rink at the 2013 Dominion (now Travelers) Curling Club championships in Thunder Bay.
“It’s fun and really exciting, especially since it’s the first time at a nationals for three of our four players,” said Penner.
“We’re so happy that all of our efforts have paid off,” she added.
Penner, originally from Kenora, has known Taylor for years and curled with her in previous bonspiels.
“She was just waiting for me to turn 50 so she could get me to join her senior team,” Penner laughed.
“Peggy’s really good at strategy and [is] a good rock thrower,” she noted.
Penner knows concentrating on the task at hand in Edmonton could be difficult for a team made up mostly of players yet to experience the national spotlight.
“We’ve got to keep our focus and not get too excited,” she stressed.
“That will be tough as our front end is pretty much brand new to competitive curling,” Penner admitted.
“Although having a younger front end than other teams might put things like sweeping in our favour,” she reasoned.
“But curling against people that have gone to world championships is likely going to be a little overwhelming.”
The most famous name in the field will be Nova Scotia’s Colleen Jones, who just happens to be first up for Northern Ontario when they begin play this Sunday.
Jones is a two-time world champion (2001 and 2004) and a six-time Scotties Tournament of Hearts champion, including an unprecedented four-straight titles.
To make the challenge even greater for Penner and Co., Jones will be joined by third Kim Kelly and lead Nancy Delahunt, who were part of her powerhouse rink in its glory days.
“It’s one of those things where you’ve seen these people on TV,” said Penner.
“But to be able to play against those types of people is going to be a fabulous experience,” she added.
“We just hope we can give them a good game.”
The format at the senior nationals has changed this year, with the 13 teams split into two pools (Yukon is not participating this year).
Eighth-seeded Northern Ontario is in Pool ‘A’ with top-ranked Nova Scotia, as well as No. 4 Saskatchewan, No. 5 New Brunswick, No. 9 Quebec, No. 12 Northwest Territories, and No. 13 Nunavut.
The top four teams in each pool will advance to a seeding round that begins March 25, with the top four after that round moving into the semi-finals.
The final is set for March 28.
“Our initial goal was not to be in the relegation pool next year,” chuckled Penner, referring to the fate that awaits the bottom three finishers this year.
“Now our goal is to get into the top four and move on to the championship round.”
