MISSISSAUGA, Ont. — A season filled with preparation, focus and success is about to come to fruition for Regina’s Jolene Campbell and her Team Saskatchewan women’s provincial curling champion foursome.
Campbell and her Callie rink of third Robyn Silvernagle, second Rachel Big Eagle, lead Dayna Demmans, alternate Callan Hamon and coach Ben Gamble are a little more than 48 hours away from taking their ice in their first game at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts, running Friday through Sunday, Feb. 1 at Paramount Fine Foods Centre in Mississauga, Ont.
Campbell will have the first draw of the event on Friday night off and will take the ice in her first game at 6 p.m. Sask time against Nova Scotia’s Taylor Stevens.
The round robin continues throughout the week, with the rest of Campbell’s eight-game draw in Pool A as follows:
Sunday
(all times Sask time)
1 p.m. B.C. (Taylor Reese-Hansen)
Monday
8 a.m. Northwest Territories (Nicky Kaufman)
6 p.m. Quebec (Jolianne Fortin)
Tuesday
1 p.m. Canada (Kerri Einarson)
Wednesday
8 a.m. Yukon (Bayly Scoffin)
6 p.m. Ontario (Hailey Armstrong)
Thursday
1 p.m. Manitoba Kaitlyn Lawes
Friday
12 p.m. Page 1-2 qualifiers
6 p.m. Page 3-4 qualifiers
Saturday
12 p.m. Page 3-4
6 p.m. Page 1-2
Sunday
12 p.m. Semifinal
6 p.m. Final
The first-place team in Pool A will play the second-place team in Pool B and vice-versa in the first round of the playoffs on Friday at 12 p.m., with the winners going directly to the Page playoff 1-2 game. The losers there meet the Pool third-place finishers on Friday at 6 p.m., and the winners of those games advance to the Page Playoff 3-4 game.
Campbell advanced to the Scotties after an impressive showing at the Bunge Prairie Pinnacle women’s provincial curling championship a couple of weeks ago, posting a 6-2 round robin record before getting hot in the playoffs and eventually going on to a 4-3 win over Jana Tisdale in the championship final.
Saskatchewan enters the Scotties as the ninth-ranked team overall and fifth-ranked team in Pool A
The Campbell foursome will have no shortage of experience at the event, especially on the back end. It’s the second trip as skip for Campbell, who also won the provincial championship in 2016 with Hamon at second. They’d go on to post a 6-5 round robin record and miss the playoffs by a single win. Campbell also played third for Chelsea Carey as a wildcard team out of Regina at the 2022 Scotties, finishing 4-4 in that round robin. Erickson served as an alternate for that squad.
Campbell was also the alternate for Amber Holland when Saskatchewan won their last Scotties back in 2011
Silvernagle has the most leadership experience of the group, having represented Saskatchewan in three Scotties as skip, including back-to-back trips in 2019 (where she’d go on to reach the semifinal) and 2020 (fifth in championship pool) as well as 2023 (eighth in Pool A).
It’ll be the first Scotties for Big Eagle as a regular player after also serving as an alternate for Manitoba's Mackenzie Zacharias in 2021. Demmans will be making her Scotties debut.
TSN will have regular draw coverage throughout the week, and you can keep up with all the scores online at www.curling.ca.
