Friday, February 24, 2012

Scotties 2012- Top 10 Moments


I have not been Blogging as much lately as I think I forgot how busy things at the Scotties get mid-week. We have pretty much been eating, sleeping and curling and as you all know... trying to get over the flu! But the curling for us is now over and the 2012 Scotties has been amazing as usual for team Galusha. Yes, we came up a bit short at meeting our original goal (7 wins, 4 losses) but there are still a lot of great moments to look back on. Here is my list of Top 10 Moments (some good and some bad).
#10- Team Manitoba vs. Team NWT/Yukon- Yes, this game was a loss for us but to me it shows just how good of a team J. Jones and company are. We actually curled fairly well and got rocks in some good positions but there was nothing we could do to even keep the game close. In my opinions this team continues to be the leader of the pack in ladies curling. They are definately beatable but deserve a lot of recognition for their success.
#9- Opening Banquet- We picked out some great dresses that made us stand out from the other teams (bright blue) but in all seriously this banquet was one of the most entertianing I have attended. The speeches were short, food was amazing and the entertainment was really good. There were even Cirque de Soliel type acrobats hanging from the ceiling of the banquet room!
#8- Uniforms- It is always stressful to get our uniforms on Day 1 of the Scotties as you keep your fingers crossed that everything will fit. The problem is that you never know if the sizing will fit bog or small and this year it was SMALL! I ahve only included this as a 'moment' in hopes that someone from the CCA reads this. We NEED new uniforms! Players this year referred to them as scuba gear or the sauna. The minute that you zipped up the skin tight jackets you immediately began sweating. And the internet chatter seems to think that the NWT/Yukon needs new colours from red/grey. I don't mind the colours but they seem to bring out negative opinions from others!!!
#7- Our Fans- One we reason were so excited to get to Red Deer was that we knew this would be as close to a home town crowd as we would ever get and it was!!! The fans from the NWT have been amazing. We have seen so many friends and family during the week but we have also seen pockets of NWT fans that are there without any real connections to us! Just real, genuine fans of NWT/Yukon. You can see pockets of fans and flags all over the building and can feel the support on the ice. There was even one Nunavut flag there for the duration of the week... I think they were the Nunavut mixed champions.
#6- Team Galusha Parents- Yes, they were everywhere this week and as usual their support in unconditional! Wendy parents were into the emails/phone calls/Facebook from NB as last year in Charlottetown they were our only fans!! Sharon's dad made us feel welcome in his home between games and offered up many meals for everyone through the week. Lynda was there, nervous sitting high in the stands as usual. Tex was an A+ babysitter to Kobe while Megan was on the ice. And Patricia was there for every game; pacing back and forth along the pedways. It doesn;t matter how old you get, you still need this parent support.
#5- Little Miss Sydney and Mr. Kobe- Our two littlest fans did a great job of behaving for their families and they were super fans in the crowd. Sydney got her curling debut on TSN... of course, chugging out of a water bottle. And Kobe seemed to like the view from way up high. I think both these kids will look back and be so proud of their mommies/
#4- Team Quebec vs. Team NWT/Yukon- We curled with 3 and for that I will always remember this game. As everyone knows our team was struck by the flu and this was the draw when it was the worst. Kerry and Wendy watched from their beds as we took on Quebec with only 3 players! This might be the first time this has ever occured at the Scotties. We kept it close until the 9th end but I really thought we might pull out the win. The crowd was soooo behind us and it would have been amazing to do the impossible and win this game.
#3- Stealing!- I am not sure why but the steals against Saskatchewan stick out as a moment for me. We stole 5 consecutive ends and tied a recond for stolen ends in Scotties history. I think this was the result of finally feeling healthy and curling how we can!!! At fifth end break Fred alluded to stealing... and we did! A great team effort and a great result (WIN).
#2- Saskatchewan/Canada- This was the final day at the Scotties and we played two tough teams Team Canada and Saskatchewan. We can out played how we could and WON two great games. Kerry made a great last rock against Canada that resulted in a stealing the win. And we pulled it together against Saksatchewan to make it a double win game. Then came all the attention over what could have been if the flu had not hit. And thanks to TSN we also got the extra exposure over this story.
And a tie for #1!!!!
#1a- Team Alberta vs Team NWT/Yukon- We did it right off the bat! We beat the home town team in the opening draw and took the wind out of their sails a bit. It went into an extra and Kerry made an amazing shot for the win (yes, swept by Shona and Wendy and line called by Sharon too!). This was a big goal for us that we set and it was great to meet this goal early in the week.
#1b- Hot Shots- Kerry won the car and how can that not be amazing! Not only that but her scores in all the rounds of Hot SHots were incredibly high. She really stayed focused and Wendy and I just kept sweeping. Yeah, we were all tired from this at the end of the same but the energy and the buzz around this was amazing. Kerry said she didn;t realize how big of a deal winning Hot Shots was!! now to figure how and when to get the new Ford Focus!
Thanks everyone for a great week in Red Deer! So many moments to remember.

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