And so another Scotties Tournament of Hearts is over. Rachel Homan’s of Ontario defeated Jennifer Jones of Manitoba in the final on Feb. 25 in Calgary to become the new Canadian women’s curling champions.
But for Team Galusha, who represented the NWT, it was the final act of what had been an amazing run over the past few years.
Kerry Galusha and her rink of Sarah Koltun, Jo-Ann Rizzo, Margot Flemming and Shona Barbour played in what was their final Canadian women’s curling championship as a unit in Calgary last week. They ended up with a record of three wins and five losses following pool play, which wasn’t good enough to make it into the playoffs this year.
Galusha said even with all the emotion of the week, the ladies weren’t happy with their record.
“We definitely wanted better, but it was an up-and-down week,” she said. “All of our games were a battle and if we made the right shots at the right time, it could’ve been different.”
Going into this year’s Scotties, Galusha said she knew it was going to be a stacked field, no matter what pool she was in. If you look at the final results, the three medal-winning teams — Homan, Jones and Kate Cameron, who also played out of Manitoba and the bronze medalist — ended up coming out of the NWT’s pool.
“That shows you just how tough our pool was,” said Galusha. “We were in all of our games, but we had one bad end or one bad shot.”
Galusha’s final game of pool play against Jones, a game she ended up winning by a score of 8-4, had some extra emotion as Jones was playing in her final Scotties.
“It was fitting to end it against Jennifer,” said Galusha. “We’ve been friends since the 1990s and we knew it would be special playing her in our last game. We rarely went to a national event without being there with her.”
Galusha and company had lost their opening three games, something that this edition of Team Galusha had never done before at the Scotties, and it put a lot of pressure on them, said Galusha.
Following their final game on Feb. 22, the ladies had a chance to spend the following day together before departing for home on Feb. 24.
Galusha said it was during that time when the realization hit that it was over.
“We all miss each other already,” she said. “We didn’t go anywhere without being stopped — even at the airport in Calgary, there were people calling out to me and saying how well we did. We’re all in what we call the “Scotties Blues”, the time right after it’s all done, and now it’s back to reality.”
While this version of Team Galusha may have taken their final bow, it’s not the end of the road for Galusha herself. Contrary to what some reports have stated, she has not retired from competitive curling, but she said she’ll probably never have as good a team as she had with this one.
“I have to be good with that,” said Galusha. “I have to focus on what’s ahead now and if I ever do have another team, it will probably be a local team. It won’t be one where we travel a lot, like our last team did, but one where we practice at the (Yellowknife Curling Centre).”
There is one thing Galusha still wants to do and that’s play at a Scotties with her daughter, Sydney.
“I really hope I get to do one with her,” she said. “She’s 14 right now, but she’s very good for her age. We’ve tried before to add her as a fifth player, but we always had a full-time fifth. I’d like to be around and be a mentor for her and put a good team together.”