Curlers well prepared for Canada Winter Games

With nearly a full year to ready themselves for the 2015 Canada Winter Games in Prince George, B.C., the Sudbury Curling Club rink of Megan Smith (skip), Kira Brunton (vice), Mikeala Cheslock(second) and Emma Johnson (lead) were fully prepared for the challenge at hand.

That preparation has paid dividends big time this week, as the Sudbury girls cruised through Pool "A" play with a flawless record of 6-0, earning a spot in one of two Friday night semifinals.

"We're a pretty strong team, but we've grown so much," said Johnson, just before the team departed for the Games last Friday. "We really worked on getting fit, and focusing on our physical health.

"And we were really focusing on coming together as a team."

In reality, that process moved along fairly quickly, as the Smith rink captured gold at the Ontario Winter Games this time last year, despite the piecemeal creation of the quartet over the past few years.

While Brunton and Cheslock initially got their start together with the "Little Rocks" program at the Idylwylde, it was the tandem of Brunton and Smith that initially formed the core of this squad, once the pair partnered in their bantam years at the Sudbury Curling Club.

When Cheslock moved to the same venue, it was a no-brainer to add her to the team, while Johnson became the final piece of the puzzle, late in the 2013-2014 season.

As with any curling rink, success for this foursome comes in part from the knowledge and comfort that each of the girls have in understanding exactly how they fit in, as individuals, to create an impressive team.

"Playing-wise, my role is to set up the ends, obviously, but part of my role on the team is to really stay positive," said Johnson. "I'm pretty much an optimist already."

Though Cheslock thrives in throwing second stones for Team Smith, her early elementary school introduction to curling, which saw her tackle the role as skip of a very inexperienced St Bernadette crew, has provided her with critical background on the functioning of this well-oiled curling machine.

"I find that it helps me understand the difficulties that other positions will have," said the 16 year old Grade 11 student at St. Charles College. "Being a skip isn't easy, and you're going to get stressed sometimes.

"My experience helps me understand and be able to help our skip better."

The senior of the group at 17 years of age, Megan Smith has served as skip both of the Ontario entry to the Games, as well as well as throwing final stones for the city champion Lo-Ellen Park Knights. She faced both Johnson and Brunton from Lockerby in the gold medal game.

"As a skip, you have to be calm and relaxed, but still focused, in bringing a certain type of energy to the team," said Smith. "You try and do everything that you can to keep your teammates in the game."

While Smith clearly carries the confidence required to make the key strategic decisions, in game, she is also not above tapping into the combined curling knowledge of her sisters in arm.

"I won't stay completely out, and if they ask for my opinion, I will give them my opinion," said Cheslock with a smile. "We don't get frustrated with each other."

Heading to British Columbia, the locals were firm in their belief that returning with a medal was achievable.

"A realistic goal is to achieve the podium," said Smith, without missing a beat. "But that means that we need to take one game at a time, one rock at a time, one end at a time."

"We're a really strong offensive team," she added. "We're going to be sticking to what we know that we're good at, putting a lot of rocks in play, and putting some pressure on the other teams."

So far, so good. The Northern Ontario ladies opened with a 10-7 win over Prince Edward Island on Monday, added victories over Saskatchewan (10-2) and Nunavut (8-4) on Tuesday, improved to 5-0 mid-week, beating both the Northwest Territories (11-7) and host British Columbia (7-5), and closed off their round robin with a 12-4 victory over the Yukon on Thursday.

All of which means that regardless of the outcome Friday evening, Megan Smith, Kira Brunton, Mikeala Cheslock and Emma Johnson were playing for a medal Saturday. The end result of plenty of hard work, and loads of great preparation.