A Sundre High School graduate who recently won international bronze at a curling tournament in China largely attributes her successful career in the sport to the local club.
“I’m forever grateful for the curling program that’s run in Sundre,” said Becca Konschuh during a phone interview on Dec. 31.
“If it wasn’t for that, I wouldn’t be where I am today or getting the opportunities that I am.”
She was first introduced to the Sundre Curling Club’s junior program around the age of 10. It laid the groundwork and built up her passion for the sport and helped steer her along that path, she said, adding she later also got involved with the local mixed and women’s leagues.
Now residing in Calgary, Konschuh graduated from the local high school in 2011 and then earned a degree in business and entrepreneurship with a major in sports recreation from Mount Royal University in 2015. Having previously worked with Totem Golf as a marketing manager, she assumed a new position as community outreach coordinator for KidSport Calgary last September.
She has remained committed to curling and is currently playing with the Edmonton-based team — skipped by Kelsey Rocque, with lead Jesse Iles and third Alison Thiessen — that competed last month at the 2018 Qinghai International Curling Elite.
“It was a great experience,” she said.
“We’re very fortunate and grateful for the opportunity to go and represent Canada.”
Going into the competition, the team had high hopes of making it through to playoffs. Achieving that goal, the rink proceeded to take things “one step at a time,” she said.
They played 10 games in total — eight round robin matches followed by two playoff matches, she said, adding they were very pleased to win bronze.
“The field was very tough for us,” she said, referring to the very well rounded international teams that put up strong competition.
Playing against Russia in the semifinal was a close battle against a team they had already gone up against several times this season, beating them twice and being defeated twice, she said.
“It was a really tight game,” she said.
“When we come up against them we know it’s going to be a good game.”
The bronze medal match against Switzerland was also a really close “back-and-forth” game that went into an extra end that worked out in their favour, she said.
“We were happy to come home with something in our hands.”
Meanwhile, Canada’s men’s curling team clinched victory over the Czech Republic 5-4 with a winning point in the final end to claim gold. The women’s final saw Germany outmatch Russia 6-3 to take first place. In the third-place matches, Scotland beat Russia 5-4 to win the men’s bronze, while the Rocque rink defeated Switzerland 6-4 for the women’s third place.
The 2018 Qinghai International Curling Elite was held at the Chinese Duoba National Plateau Sports Training Base and featured 18 teams from 10 countries and regions. The tournament, which was a part of the World Curling Tours in China, was hosted in Xining City, located in China’s northwest Qinghai province, from Dec. 14-19.
Konschuh was glad to be home in time for the holidays to spend Christmas with friends and family, as well as to get the opportunity to recover from jet lag, she said with a laugh.
“The timing worked out nicely.”
She had never been to China before and said that getting to see the Great Wall was incredible.
“It was something else to see one of the Seven Wonders of the World,” she said, adding the experience was made all the more memorable by the opportunity to don the iconic Maple Leaf.
“Representing Canada is always an honour.”
The season is far from over, with the rink having qualified for Alberta provincial championships later this month in Stettler, she said.
“We were fortunate enough to be among the top teams in the province,” she said, adding they were one of two rinks in Alberta to get a bye into provincials after accumulating enough points throughout numerous bonspiels.
Konschuh seems to have every intention of pursuing her curling career as long as possible and despite being a new member of the Rocque rink this year, she said the team has meshed well and enjoyed quite a bit of success to date.
“We’re looking to stick together for the next few years,” she said, adding if everyone’s still on board, they might well consider a potential Olympic run.
“We’d give it our best go.”
