Bentley was the home of the Zone 4 curling championships on Dec. 2nd and 3rd. Four girls from Central Alberta were at the play downs for the Alberta winter games. Fifteen-year-old Emilie Anderson is a third for her rink and she’s pretty pumped about heading to the Spruce Grove, Stony Plain and Parkland County area.

“We are very excited, also for the experience that it will be, but just to actually play at a higher level for curling will be new and a very challenging opportunity for us.”

Anderson’s team was involved in the play downs which included three teams. Should Anderson’s team win out, they were in. It was almost a default win for her team. The scores in the games were 12-0 and 14-0. The girls were good sports. “Near the end we were encouraging the other team to keep going.”

In spite of their domination, the girls, led by skip Marla Sherrer, are not expecting a cakewalk when they head to the winter games.

“We’re just going to try to do the best that we can, we hope to do very well, but at the same time, we don’t know what the other teams are like yet but we feel we will be able to do very well,” said Anderson.

And why not? It can be argued that Anderson and crew are just hitting their stride. The amount of time they’ve been together as a curling team has not been long. “This is the first year that we’ve all curled together. I think we’re still getting to know each other but we’re all good teammates and friends.”

That chemistry is fueling this team. Anderson is hoping that one day that chemistry and fuel will ignite a fire that gets them onto an ultimate world curling stage, eventually maybe the Olympics.

Big ambition and big dreams push Anderson and her teammates, which could be the deciding factor when they’re at the winter games. All they need to do is keep their eyes on the prize.

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