There was plenty to celebrate on New Year’s Eve for Carbon resident Rebecca Pattison. Her curling team, under Skip Nadine Chyz, backed up by Rebecca (third), Kristina Hadden (second), lead Kimberley Anderson and coach J.D. Lind, had just won the place of first semi-finalist at the 2010 Subway Junior Curling Provincials in Grande Prairie, making the team the Alberta Junior’s Women’s Curling Champion.
Although the title eluded them last year as Scheidegger, then led by Casey Scheidegger, beat the Chyz foursome in last season’s provincial championship draw in Camrose, this year when Chyz played the Sheidegger team, this time led by Casey’s sister Jessie Scheidegger, they were able to defeat them in their first game, Rebecca said “that was nice as we hadn’t beaten that team for I think two years.”
Despite a clear victory where they went undefeated 7-0, Rebecca explained: “we had a lot of close games that were very stressful but we ended up coming out of them with a win.”
Practicing two evenings a week and most weekends, hard work has obviously paid off for Rebecca, 19, who started curling 10 years ago. She and her sister, Skip Hayley took Team Pattison to 7th place at the Alberta Winter Games in 2004 and to second in the Juvenile Provincial in 2005. Hayley also represented Canada and won the gold medal in curling at the Winter Universaide Games in Torino, Italy.
Rebecca attributes Team Chyz’s performance to the fact that they have been playing together for three years now and know each other very well.
Chyz and Co are now preparing for the 2010 M & M Meatshops Canadian Junior Championships in Sorel-Tracy, Quebec.
“It’s nice to finally get to that level” Rebecca told The Mail, “we will be playing against the best teams in Canada though so I don’t know what to expect.”
The event runs January 16-24 and brings together 13 men’s and 13 women’s teams representing the 10 provinces plus separate entries from Northern Ontario, Northwest Territories and Yukon in a round robin competition format.
The playoffs involve three teams, with the first place teams advancing to their respective finals, while the second and third place teams meet in semi-finals.
The winners will then represent Canada at the 2010 world juniors.
TSN, the official broadcaster for the CCA’s Season of Champions, will televise the women’s final on Saturday, January 23 and the men’s final on Sunday, January 24.
