The Murray Arena in Okotoks will be rockin’ in January.
The Okotoks Curling Club is hosting the 2020 Alberta Scotties Tournament of Hearts Jan. 22-26 at the Murray.
“Things are fast approaching and we’re getting everything ramped up,” said Okotoks Curling Club manager Mike Libbus. “The pressure’s on, we’re getting things finalized, we are less than two months away now.”
The club has proven they can handle the pressure before. Its prowess in hosting previous tournaments was one of the reasons it received the bid.
“We have hosted the U18s and the U21s the last couple of years so Curling Alberta actually approached us because of the community, the amount of volunteers and the quality of ice that we have had, they were interested if we wanted to host it,” Libbus said.
There’s pressure and then there’s the pressure of eight of the best women curlers in Alberta vying to take the Alberta Scotties title to represent the Wild Rose province at the Canadian Scotties in Moose Jaw in February.
Three of the eight teams have been determined by their standings in the Canadian Tour Ranking System and the Alberta Excel standings.
Kelsey Roque earned a trip to Okotoks by being the top Alberta rink in the CTRS ranking. Also coming to the Alberta Scotties are Casey Scheidegger and Kayla Skrlik who were first and second, respectively, in the Excel standings.
The remaining five teams will be determined at qualifiers in Calgary and Edmonton on Dec. 20-22 and Jan. 10-12 respectively.
(Chelsea Carey, the defending Alberta champion gets an automatic bye to the Canadian Scotties as the reigning national title holder.)
The tournament will be a round-robin format, with the top four teams going onto the playoffs, which uses the page playoff system.
Tickets for the Alberta Scotties are available on the Okotoks Curling Club’s website at Okotokscurling.com
Regular features will appear on this website up to the conclusion of the Alberta Scotties.
