All good things must come to an end, right? No matter how much we want things to go on because we like them, everything is finite.
That goes for the now-former edition of Team Galusha: Kerry Galusha, Sarah Koltun, Margot Flemming, Jo-Ann Rizzo, Shona Barbour and coach Kevin Koe. The curtain call came at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts in Calgary on Feb. 22 when Galusha and company beat Jennifer Jones of Manitoba in their final contest, 8-4.
Rather fitting that Galusha and Jones met in that last pool game — in what was the final game for Team Galusha, it was the last competitive Scotties for Jones, who played in her final Canadian women’s curling championship. She’ll keep on playing mixed doubles with her husband, Brent Laing.
This year’s record wasn’t good enough to see Team Galusha get into the playoffs; they finished fifth in their pool with a record of 3-5, and five losses was too many. They were in every single one of their games, but it was one bad shot or one bad end that was the culprit every time. Every rink goes through that and it throws everything right off.
Despite that, there’s no question this version of Team Galusha was the most successful in terms of results. All you need to do is take a look at what they were able to do.
The first accomplishment — and perhaps biggest one of all — was making the playoffs at the Scotties in 2022, the first team from the NWT to do so. So many years of ‘almost’ and ‘on the brink’ were gone that one afternoon in Thunder Bay, Ont. One of the most popular rinks in the country had finally done it and the tears were joyful this time.
They were able to savour it for a grand total of one hour as the playoffs started right away.
The ladies won multiple times on tour, which built their ranking to the point that were invited to play in the inaugural PointsBet Invitational in 2022. The key word in there is ‘invitational’ — you don’t just slap down an entry fee, roll up and play. The top 12 teams on the World Curling Team Ranking System at the time were invited and that’s how Galusha and company got their spot.
It was a 16-team, single-knockout tournament and being the first event of the new season, upsets were there for the taking. Team Galusha went up against Casey Scheidegger of Alberta and lost in the first round, 8-7, a game they lost on the last rock.
And lest we forget that the ladies became the first rink based in the North to take a crack at qualifying for the Winter Olympics. That happened in the 2021-22 season right around the time they ran an 11-game winning streak while on tour. They won the first qualifier, colloquially called the pre-pre-qualifier, in Ottawa, which got them into the actual Home Hardware Pre-Trials in Nova Scotia.
It didn’t work out (I blamed the fact that they were wearing Yukon colours and not those of the NWT) as Galusha said they “dipped,” but it was something to see a team from the NWT battle it out for the Olympics.
Those are just the highlights of what was quite the run of one of the best sporting exports the NWT has ever had. They ensured the territory was part of the discussion when it came to winning. You knew when these ladies showed up that you were going to get a battle and not a sixth-end handshake, much to the chagrin of some.
Understanding and support
These NWT ladies essentially crafted their lives around curling, like so many others around the country who play in the upper echelon. When it comes to being a competitive curler, I’m reminded of the words spoken by Ray Turnbull, the late, great TSN curling analyst, on what it takes: a very supportive family and a very understanding employer. It isn’t simply just get up and go — the schedule needs to be planned and a lot of curlers take vacation time simply to go out and do what they love to do.
Imagine the uprising if any of these ladies were to be told, “Sorry, no Scotties this year. You only have 26.8 hours of vacation left.”
I wrote this back in 2021 and it still rings true: any group of people can become a team, but you have to be willing to work with each other in order to make it successful. Rizzo herself has said that Galusha is one of the most committed skips she’s ever worked with. Galusha has called Rizzo and Koltun amazing teammates. Flemming’s joining the team in 2019 was seamless, Megan Koehler was there if the situation called for it and Barbour has made a rather good transition from player to coach, though she still jumped in to play when the need arose.
Galusha has said she isn’t retiring, contrary to what you may have seen published by other outlets. She has hinted that if she were to do it again, it would probably be with a local team. She did say, however, that one of her dreams is to play at a Scotties with her daughter, Sydney. Sydney is just 14 and is already a very good curler (helps when your mom is on the mentoring side). That would be something to behold and would only be a natural progression.
With Team Galusha shutting down the shop, things have opened up quite a bit in terms of who could step in. Sharon Cormier and her senior women’s team could easily jump in and become the NWT’s representative. Cormier has plenty of Scotties experience already, as does Kelly Kaylo, who plays with Cormier. Kaylo has played at five Scotties, so she knows what it’s all about.
There’s Betti Delorey out of Hay River, who has participated in the Canadian Club Championships previously. Same goes for Yellowknife’s Sarah Stroeder, another player who has been to the club nationals and someone who I’ve always thought could do quite well at the Scotties if she ever won the NWT women’s championship.
The best junior girls team in the NWT right now, without question, is Team Wainman out of Inuvik. Could they jump into a Scotties? It would be a leap right now, for sure, but they will be one to watch for the future.
One thing I hope doesn’t happen is for the NWT to become the next Nunavut. If you hadn’t heard, Nunavut didn’t have a team at this year’s Scotties because they couldn’t send one. That’s something which made waves around the curling community and brought up talk of whether the territories should each have one spot. Yes, I do think they should because the Scotties is a national championship and every jurisdiction deserves a place.
But this is about the here and now. It’s about what Team Galusha did on the ice and the success they had. This was the most successful edition of the outfit, and I’ve had the privilege to report on all the heartbreak, the close calls, the happiness, the success and now the end. It’s been a blast.
For all of that, we say farewell to this version of Team Galusha and we thank you for everything.