By Emily Jaycox
For the Stettler Independent
Marla Sherrer, skip, is looking forward to competing at the 2019 Jiffy Lube Alberta Scotties Tournament of Hearts in Stettler, her “new home,” she said in an interview Jan. 11.
“We’re pretty excited.”
The women’s provincial curling bonspiel will be held in Stettler from Jan. 23 to 27.
Sherrer moved to Stettler in December 2017, after starting a job as an occupational and physiotherapy assistant at the Stettler hospital in September 2017.
Team Sherrer, of the Lacombe Curling Club, is the only team from central Alberta to qualify for provincials.
The Lacombe team was the number one qualifier out of the Ellerslie qualifying bonspiel.
Out of the 12 teams playing in provincials, eight spots are available through “playdowns” such as the one held in Ellerslie.
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The team qualified for provincials last year, and finished about “mid-pack”, in about seventh place, says Sherrer.
“We do have a little bit of a different lineup this year.”
Rebecca Boorse was the team’s fifth player last year but is now the lead.
The rest of the team members, Sherrer, Adrienne Winfield, third, and Julie Selvais, second, have played together for four years.
Team Sherrer has played about five bonspiels together.
“We’ve had a fairly good season.”
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Selvais lives in Lacombe, Boorse hails from Ellerslie and Winfield lives in Edmonton.
Lacombe Curling Club is a central location for all the members to meet and practice.
“We’ve been really fortunate with Lacombe for sponsorship and practice.”
Young, but not inexperienced, the team already has some impressive accomplishments between them.
Sherrer, the oldest at 23-years-old, has been curling for 18 years.
She was the 2017 Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) national champion with a different team.
Boorse was the 2013 and 2014 U18 Alberta champion and Winfield was the CCAA national silver medalist in 2017 and the Alberta mixed provincial champion for 2018-2019.
Sherrer is expecting stiff competition at the Alberta Scotties, having played several of the teams on the world curling tour throughout the season.
When asked which team is likely to be a top contender, she says “it’s tough to say … Alberta is such a tough province to curl out of… there are some really good teams.”
As this is a rebuilding year for Team Sherrer, they’ve set their sights on what they feel is an attainable goal.
“I think for us, we just want to make it to playoffs.”
Sherrer says she’s been impressed by Stettler’s detailed planning for the provincial bonspiel.
“It looks like it’s going to be a really good event.”
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