Skip Meghan Walter (image credit - CFJC Today)

By Michael Reeve

SCOTTIES TOURNAMENT OF HEARTS

Wild card entrants use consistency to reach Scotties in Kamloops

Feb 17, 2023 | 4:12 PM

KAMLOOPS — There are three ways to earn an entry to the Scotties Tournament of Hearts. Number One, be the defending champions. Two, win your provincial championship. Or three, be one of the best overall teams all season long and earn one of three wild card berths.

The Scotties is the pinnacle of women’s curling in Canada. It’s the event that every young curler aspires to reach.

Meghan Walter is already a world champion in mixed doubles at the age of 20, and tomorrow (Feb 18) will make her Scotties debut as Skip of Wild Card 3.

“Super excited, it’s a real surreal moment. I’ve always dreamt of playing in this event. I think I’m going to soak it all in and let the nerves kind of fly out of me during the first game,” said Walter.

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Earning a wild card berth in the Scotties is reserved for the best overall teams over the course of the curling season. It was that consistent performance that got Walter and her team to Kamloops.

“I think it just goes to our hard work and dedication that paid off this season. We travelled a lot and put in a lot of effort and hard work into qualifying in most of the events we played in, which ended up giving us enough points to get the wildcard spot,” said Walter. “Losing the finals in the provincials is always a tough way to go out but the silver lining is we get to be wild card and I am going to take it all in.”

Also earning a wild card berth into the Scotties is the Casey Scheidegger rink and the Kaitlyn Lawes team — although it’s not the first rodeo for either team. Scheidegger appeared in both the 2018 and 2019 Tournament of Hearts, while Lawes is an Olympic champion.

“It’s awesome. We obviously would have loved to be in our province’s colours but being a wild card is a really big honour and we worked really hard to make sure we were in position to potentially get that. We are really happy with our season so far,” said Scheidegger.

Both the Scheidegger’s and Walter’s rinks finished second in their respective provincial playdowns. For the Walter team, it was a tough matchup against one of the legends of the sport.

“We played one of the best in the world in Jenifer Jones, so I think that really prepared us to go into this week and we get a little rematch against her on Sunday. We are looking forward to that,” said Walter.

Walter will get her shot at revenge on Sunday morning at 8:30 a.m. when her wild card rink battles Jones and Team Manitoba.