Never count out a champion. Semi-retirement from full-time curling and a pre-tournament back injury were no match for Okotoks skip Shannon Kleibrink who battled her way to a perfect record at the St.
Never count out a champion.
Semi-retirement from full-time curling and a pre-tournament back injury were no match for Okotoks skip Shannon Kleibrink who battled her way to a perfect record at the St. Albert Curling Club for her fifth Alberta Scotties championship and first since 2011.
“All the other times that I won there was an expectation that we maybe had a chance,” Kleibrink said. “On Monday morning when I couldn't stand up straight and we hadn't played much this year I didn't give us much hope.
“You never know with curling, you just have to get on a roll and anything can happen.”
Kleibrink — with Lisa Eyamie at third, Sarah Wilkes at second, Alison Thiessen at lead and former national champion Heather Nedohin as a superstar fifth — edged Vegreville's Val Sweeting 6-4 in the provincial final on Sunday.
Few, Kleibrink among them, would have given the team a chance.
The 2006 Olympic bronze medallist, who is pretty darn busy running the Crescent Point Regional Field House as her day job, scaled back her time on the ice significantly over the past couple seasons.
“Two years ago when Lisa and I formed a team it was just to play for fun on a few weekends,” Kleibrink said. “When the girls joined us from Edmonton last year we were going to step it up just a little bit from last year to see if there was any potential there.
“We started to win a few things, accumulate points for Olympic pre-trials and now this. I guess, we're back in it.”
The Okotoks Curling Club squad did not taste defeat in St. Albert.
Kleibrink, 48, opened the championship with a 5-4 victory over former teammate Kalynn Virtue and edged out Lethbridge's Jodi Marthaller by a 5-3 count.
The A qualifier, with Nedohin playing in place of Kleibrink, went to the wire in a 7-6 extra end triumph over Calgary's Geri-Lynn Ramsay.
The extra-end would again be the route to victory with a spot in the final on the line.
Kleibrink got back on the ice and helped the team get past Sweeting 7-6 in 11 ends in the page 1-2 playoff. Sweeting edged Casey Scheidegger in the semifinal to earn a rematch.
That Kleibrink was able to play at all was a credit to a pair of Okotoks clinics, Momentum Physical Therapy and Summit Sports Physiotherapy.
“By the time I got up there I thought I would be able to play one game a day,” she said. “We picked up Heather Nedohin, she skipped the first and the third game. We're good friends, she was with us as a fifth player at trials last time. I called her and she jumped in within about five minutes.”
Team Kleibrink is off the 2017 Scotties Tournament of Hearts (SCOH), Feb. 18-26 in St. Catharines, Ont. The Scotties title is one of the only major trophies missing on the resume of the Olympic medallist.
“We're just going to go with an open mind and know that if we can make it through Alberta, there's a chance we can be in the playoffs at the end of this thing,” Kleibrink said. “We will take it one game at a time and see what we can put together.”
The skip's first trip to the SCOH in six years will see at least one of the perennial favourites absent from competition. Five-time Scotties winner and reigning Olympic champion Jennifer Jones was upset in the Manitoba provincial semifinal. Michelle Englot will represent the Keystone Province. Calgary's Chelsea Carey rink is the defending champion.
For more information on the Scotties Tournament of Hearts go to curling.ca/2017scotties
