YORKTON - It was very much a homecoming for Kailee Popowich as she took to the ice at the Yorkton Curling Club this weekend.
Curling with the Sherry Just team Popowich was back in her hometown for the weekend as the Yorkton Curling Club hosted the Sask Curling Tour's Men's and Women's Players Championship.
“It was so much fun. Yorkton is one of my favourite places to play,” the 23-year-old Popowich told Yorkton This Week in an interview.
Popowich added what made the weekend event so good for her personally was “a lot of friends and family coming to see me play.”
Unfortunately those friends and family wouldn’t see Popowich and Team Just in the playoffs. In that regard big wins have been a bit rare for the team this season, admitted Popowich, with their season basically complete as the foursome did not qualify for the Viterra Scotties Women’s Playdowns starting in Tisdale Jan. 16.
“Unfortunately our season is over,” said Popowich, the team missing the cut in the recent ‘last chance’ event to make the draw in Tisdale,
Popowich said curling often comes down to inches between the shot you need and a miss. “We’ve been on the wrong side of the inch this season,” she said.
Interestingly Popowich ended up pursuing curling because of TV.
“My mom and dad really didn’t curl,” she said.
But the sport still caught her eye thanks to the Amber Holland rink winning the Canadian championship in 2011.
A young Popowich was watching and remembers telling her mom, “one day I’m going to do that.” Her mother listened and enrolled the enthusiastic youngster in curling.
It is not without some irony it was Holland who eliminated the Just rink at the last chance event, but still 13-years later Popowich said the dream of a national title, or a sport on a Canadian Olympic team remains vibrant.
“It’s been the dream ever since,” she said.
There was a brief glitch in the dream, a time when Popowich was off the ice recuperating for months, which makes an event like the one in Yorkton almost unexpected yet very much appreciated by Popowich.
“Honestly if you would have told me I would be playing in the Saskatchewan tour I probably would have called you crazy,” she said. “. . . last year I was unfortunately injured and didn’t get to play competitively at all.”
But, as she worked to get back to the sport Sherry Just reached out asking her to join her team’s front end. The call put Popowich back on the trail of her dream.
The opportunity has been a good fit.
“I’ve learned so much from Sherry. She likes to joke I’m a mini version of her. She kind of knows what I’m thinking,” said Popowich who added she very much sees her skip “as a mentor.”
The comeback has taken effort.
“Technically it was not much of an adjustment, but physically and mentally, I struggled to get back” said Popowich.
As a front end player Popowich reminded a huge part of her role on the team is to sweep – 300 rocks at one event this year – so she had to get her muscles back in shape.
As for next season, well Popowich will curl, but the team hasn’t made definitive plans yet.
“We haven’t talked about it,” she said, adding one team member is moving to Weyburn so whether she wants to stay on a Saskatoon based team is yet to be decided.
But, Popowich likes Saskatoon as a base – largely since there is curling ice in August to start honing skills, adding she plans to be using that ice as there is a dream yet to fulfill.
