Glencoe rink begins Olympic quest in P.E.I.

A little inspiration never hurts.

With the thought of a cramped hotel room for a week as no one’s idea of a good time, Nadine Scotland and her Glencoe Club foursome of Calgary are experiencing a slice of history in Summerside, P.E.I., while they try to make a little history of their own.

Scotland and her rink are one of 14 women’s teams and 14 men’s squads competing in this week’s 2017 Home Hardware Road to the Roar — vying for two spots apiece into next month’s Roar of the Rings, the Olympic qualifying curling tournament.

They’re happily ensconced in one of Summerside’s most famous addresses, a one-time home of author Lucy Maud Montgomery of Anne of Green Gables fame, and if anything, the setting will help clear the mind for the arduous task at hand.

“When we found out we had a spot in pre-trials, we knew we’d be gone for 10 days or so, so we wanted to look into getting a house so we’d have our own space,” Scotland said.

“It’s so beautiful, it’s a bed and breakfast, very busy over the summer.

“It’s her grandmother’s home. Paul Montgomery (first cousin, twice removed) and his wife Michelle are just lovely people, they’re taking care of us so well, it’s a great place to call home for a week.

“We had a little tour and went over the history of it. We’re very thankful that Paul opened this place (it’s the off-season) and we’re grateful our sponsors and families and friends have supported us along to get us here on this journey.”

It’s been a relatively new journey for this rink, which was known last year as Team Chyz — Scotland was married over the summer.

It’s only their second season together (along with third Heather Jensen, second Rebecca Konschuh and lead Heather Rogers), but it didn’t take them long to jell.

After adding Konschuh in place of Whitney Eckstrand last year, they ended up winning four WCT titles on the season.

“Personality wise, (Konschuh and Eckstrand) had a lot of similar qualities, so it allowed for a seamless transition,” Scotland said. “We were very happy with the success, being a first-year team. But I think we also learned a lot in that season, as well.”

In 2017-18, currently ranked 30th on the world stage, they’re hoping to build on that early success.

“Last year, after doing some calculations, we realized we were good potential to get into the pre-trials,” said Scotland, who works in communications and special events with Special Olympics Alberta-Calgary.

“So we re-evaluated our schedule and tried to get into some events that could hopefully get us in to make one of the spots in pre-trials. We luckily had some success in those and that got us a spot, so we were happy to achieve that goal.” That was the first step. “We had some great discussions about what we had to do and how to best prepare,” said the 27-year-old.

“We did some off-season training, working with a sports psychologist just to try and better our games as individuals and as a team, to best prepare us for getting here this weekend.”

Included in that group of women’s teams are top seed Tracy Fleury of Sudbury, Coldwater’s Sherry Middaugh and Shannon Kleibrink of Okotoks.

On the men’s side, John Morris of Vernon tops the rankings, which also includes Toronto’s Glenn Howard and Winnipeg’s Pat Simmons.

The prize at the end of the week is a shot at all the marbles, to be the Canadian representative at the 2018 Olympic Games in South Korea.

“It definitely would be incredible,” said Scotland. “Canada, I guess you could say we’re lucky as a country, but as a player, obviously it’s difficult to have such depth amongst the teams across the nation. So it’s not going to be easy.

“If we’re one of those two teams at the end of the week, we know we’ll have definitely fought hard and we’d be very proud of ourselves.”