A former Cache Creek resident who walked away from curling for six years is excited to be back at the sport, playing every week and eyeing a spot at the provincials in Duncan in January.
Kelsey Redan (neé Schwindt) now lives in Lillooet, but she lived in Cache Creek for 20 years.
“I started curling at the age of seven,” she says. “My parents curled, and I always looked up to Sandra Schmirler. I watched her at the Scott Tournament of Hearts and at the 1998 Olympics.”
[Schmirler, who died in 2000 aged 36, skipped the Canadian women’s team to gold at the 1998 Nagano Olympics during the first year that curling was an Olympic sport; she also captured three Canadian curling championships and three World curling championships.]
“I was one of the youngest curlers at the Ashcroft club,” says Redan. “I competed mostly with boys when we went to competitions.”
She then went on to curl competitively in Vernon, where she played with other teams before curling out of Salmon Arm for a year. She followed that up by curling with clubs in Kamloops and Vernon.
After taking six years off, the 26-year-old Redan returned to competitive curling this fall. She now plays second for Team Russett, practicing every Sunday, playing every Monday in a super league in Kamloops, and travelling to competitions. On the weekend of December 2, Team Russett will be taking part in play-downs in Vernon; a win there, or in a play-down in Abbotsford on the weekend of December 15, would secure the team a spot at the provincials. A win there would secure a place at the Scott Tournament of Hearts in St. Catharine’s, Ontario in February.
Redan is glad she returned to a sport that has been part of her life for so long. “It’s never too late to reach your dream,” she says. “It’s something that always meant a lot to me, and it’s been awesome. The sacrifices are worth it.”