Alberta Scotties champs gear up for curling season, aiming to continue success

After last year’s win at the Alberta Scotties, Team Skrlik is one of the up-and-coming curling forces in Canada. The Calgary-based team is comprised of Ashton Skrlik, Brittany Tran, Geri-Lynn Ramsay and skip Kayla Skrlik.

Over the summer, the team has taken time to debrief and relax. However, with their first curling event only a week away, sisters Kayla and Ashton say their competitive drive is ramping up.

“I think one of our biggest goals is to get back to the Scotties, whether that be through the last wild card spot or through winning provincials,” says Kayla.

Ashton adds, “we’re getting on the cusp of making it into slams. So we’re going to start with a pretty heavy year. So we’re entered in 10 bonspiels, I believe, before Christmas.”

With those big objectives, and their previous success, comes more pressure.

“Yeah, I feel like there’s a bigger expectation now that we’ve been there before and have that under our belt. I think a lot of the pressure is more so coming from ourselves than other people, but that will be something that we work out with our sports psychologist, Perry Ford,” says Ashton.

Kayla adds that the team has already developed coping skills to deal with the high expectations.

“One of our biggest mottos is just be kind to each other, be nice, especially to ourselves. Because when you put a bunch of pressure on yourself to do well, and it doesn’t work out, the first person to not be kind to you is always yourself.”

However, the team is not just focused on winning medals this year. Being the first ever BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of colour) majority team at the Scotties last year, Ashton says a priority is showing young athletes that curling is a sport for everyone.

“Being able to see some of the messages coming in about, how we’re a predominantly Asian team and how some little girls have messaged us saying that ‘it’s so inspiring to look at someone who looks like them being at the level that we are’, that was very inspiring to see,” Ashton explains.

For Kayla, becoming the high-level curler she would’ve looked up to as a kid, is a dream.

“I think everyone deals with the feelings of, ‘do I deserve to be here’, some imposter syndrome, ‘what is happening.’ Now it’s just like a dream, everything’s a dream. Curling’s always been fun, but doing it at the level that’s just the most competitive is amazing,” Kayla says.

All of Team Skrlik’s games this season will be live-streamed, and can be found on Facebook here.

Team Skrlik schedule

by Lisa Parent

Alberta Scotties champs gear up for curling season, aiming to continue success

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