Back-up skip steps right up
With Kleibrink ailing, Nedohin returns to Scotties spotlight as a replacement skip
Remember that scene in the best sports movie ever, Seabiscuit, when the loopy radio man loses his mind upon learning the star race horse’s injured jockey would be replaced by the most decorated rider available?
“The Iceman cometh! What a pinch-hitter! Why, it’s like getting Babe Ruth off the bench. Nerves of steel, ice water in his veins …”
That came to mind Tuesday at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts when Alberta skip Shannon Kleibrink admitted — in a bittersweet moment — that she might not curl again at these women’s nationals because of an injured back.
That’s the bitter part. The sweet part is that Kleibrink four weeks ago enlisted the services of 2012 Scotties champion Heather Nedohin as alternate — more specifically, as emergency fill-in skip.
In the last week of January, Nedohin indeed subbed in as skip occasionally to help Kleibrink, third Lisa Eyamie, second Sarah Wilkes and lead Alison Thiessen win the provincials for the Okotoks Curling Club. And in three games as skip at the Meridian Centre in St. Catharines, Nedohin has led Alberta to a pair of crucial victories.
In Draw 8 on Tuesday morning, things looked bleak for Nedohin and Alberta, trailing winless Saskatchewan 6-3 through six ends and 7-6 entering the 10th without the hammer. But Nedohin stole one to force an extra end, whereupon she stole three more to win it. She shot an on-fire 91 per cent in the game. In Tuesday afternoon’s Draw 9, Alberta jumped out to a 3-1 lead against undefeated Michelle Englot of Manitoba, but gave up three in the fifth to lose the lead for good in a 9-5 loss.
Alberta has a 3-3 record but remains very much in playoff contention, with three struggling teams up next (0-6 British Columbia, 1-4 Nova Scotia and 2-4 P.E.I.) before concluding round robin play against the 3-3 Northwest Territories and 4-1 Team Canada.
Nedohin had stepped back from competitive curling in 2015 to become the business manager of the Sherwood Park Curling Club, just east of Edmonton.
“I’m going to get emotional,” she said Tuesday morning. “It feels really good to be back. I love playing on this ice, when you can make shots … and try to bring out the best in the players.
“And I have to be honest: I never thought I’d be back. So for me, I mean it’s harsh that Shannon’s back is not feeling well, but at the same (time), it’s like something was presented to me and I’m just going to roll with it.”
Nedohin first competed in the Scotties in the late ’90s. As a third for Cathy Borst, she was a Scotties champion and world bronze medallist in 1998 and Scotties runner-up in 1999.
As Scotties champion with her own rink in 2012, the 41-year-old won bronze at the worlds. Now she’s back. “I’m still buzzing, I have to be honest,” Nedohin said minutes after the rally against Saskatchewan. “(At the) opening ceremonies here, seeing so many familiar faces, it really hit me that that’s when I missed it. I do not miss the grind of (playing) every weekend and travelling to small communities and blah, blah, blah. I do miss this.”
Kleibrink, 48, was a Scotties runner-up as Alberta skip in 2008, two years after winning the Canadian Olympic trials and winning bronze at the Turin Winter Games.
Two days before the provincials last month, she felt her back go.
“It’s an irritated disc,” she told reporters following Nedohin’s media scrum, “and now the muscles are mad.” Are those muscles spasming? “Yeah. I’m OK if I don’t play. Curling really irritates it.”
On Saturday, Kleibrink skipped Alberta to an 11-6 opening win over Northern Ontario’s Krista McCarville, shooting 81 per cent. But she shot just 58 per cent in Sunday’s 9-5 loss to Quebec’s Eve Belisle.
Nedohin curled 88 per cent in skipping Alberta to a 5-3 victory over Newfoundland and Labrador’s Stacie Curtis on Sunday night. Kleibrink returned to play on Monday, but shot only 63 per cent in a 6-4 loss to Ontario’s Rachel Homan.
“About halfway through … I could tell maybe I’m not going to play today,” Kleibrink said Tuesday morning. “It’s just I can’t drive out and get into my slide early, so it’s just not where it needs to be.”
When will Kleibrink return to play this week?
“You know what? If the girls start having success, then maybe not,” Kleibrink said.
“Because I’m not going to go back in, seven games later, not knowing the ice, and it’s not like we don’t have an amazing skip out there.
“We’re very lucky that Heather was available and actually not playing on her own team this year and could join us on the spur of the moment, because she’s amazing, obviously.”