Team Birnie is ready to rock at the Scott Tournament of Hearts (Scotties).

The Whitehorse foursome edged Team Eby in two close games in a best-of-three series at the Whitehorse Curling Club Jan. 4-5.

The Scotties take place Jan. 28 to Feb. 6 at the Fort William Gardens in Thunder Bay.

Team Birnie is skipped by Hailey Birnie. Patty Wallingham is the third, Kerry Campbell is the second, and Kim Tuor throws lead rocks. The alternate is Stephanie Brown, a free agent from Ontario (each team is allowed one free agent). Chelsea Duncan, also part of the team, in on maternity leave.

Birnie, a former actress in Supernatural and other programs, recalled the twists and turns the team has taken on the road to the Scotties.

“About a week before the play down, everything went sideways. With the new government mandate coming out, teams were no longer going to be able to play against other teams. The Yukon Curling Association ended up calling us and some of our competitors; we worked out to be able to do a playdown before the mandate got put in place. It was a little bit of a scramble, but they did it, with the help of the Whitehorse Curling Club as well. The day before playdowns we lost a player due to illness. Then the day of our first game for the playdowns, one of our different players ended up in a hospital. We kind of scrambled and ended up getting Helen Strong to do spare for us. We’ve been calling her Super-Spare. She’s been fantastic. She stepped in and kind of seamlessly jumped into the team, and the team dynamic, and really helped us through the playdown,” related Birnie.

The playdown went from a best-of-five to a best-of-three due to the restrictions.

The Birnie rink’s opponents in the playdowns, skipped by Laura Eby, had nearly captured a bronze in the Canadian Curling Club Championships late in 2021 and represented the Yukon at the Scotties last year.

“They had a wonderful year this year as well. They were at the club championships earlier this (curling) year, and represented the Yukon really well, so we knew that we were gonna have to bring our game,” stated Birnie.

The best-of-three final came down to two close games.

“We ended up having two really good games. We ended up winning both of them,” related Birnie.

The first game was close.

“It came down to the second-last rock. We played almost the full 10 ends ... Laura Eby’s team had the hammer and we were up one at that time, and I made a nice draw to sit two or three, and on their draw, they just didn’t make it, but it was a really good game,” recalled Birnie.

The first game ended 6-5 for Team Birnie.

The second game was closer.

“Had a bit of an exciting end to the second one where we were in the ninth end and it had been a really good game. Laura Eby’s team had just taken two on us in the eighth to tie it up, and we’re in the ninth, and ended up making a couple really nice shots at the end of the end, to sit four. And that was game over at that point,” recalled Birnie.

Team Birnie took the game 8-4 to send them to the Scotties.

“I feel good going into the Scotties,” stated Birnie.

“Our local coach, Gord Moffat, is not coming with us to the Scotties, and we ended up picking up a colleague of his and a world-class coach, Bill Tshirhart ... so I’m really excited about that ... I’m very much looking forward to working with him.”

Tshirhart, from Ontario, has conducted clinics in the Yukon in the past.

“It’s going to be an interesting year,” mused Birnie.

“Obviously, we’re still in the middle of the pandemic, and, at this point, Ontario ... does not allow people to attend sporting events, so we’re not sure if we’ll have an audience ... (or) at half-capacity – we’re not sure what that’s going to look like. I know personally, I really enjoy the crowd. I find the energy, it just helps to make the experience and it’s something that I almost feel like I raise my game to ... so I’m hoping we have an audience, but time will tell.”

“The competition’s looking pretty good,” said Birnie.

“We’ve got a really nice mix of teams that have either represented at the Scotties before or some of them at the Worlds, some of them at the Olympics. Rachel Homan is the team for Team Ontario. We have Krista McCarville for Northern Ontario, Mary-Anne Arsenault, who is from B.C., I could name a lot of them. But these are curlers who have world-class experience. Some of them wear medals to bed I’m pretty sure. Which is great,” she said wryly.

Birnie says in order to compete against that strong competition, you can’t be intimidated.

“One thing I do know from past experience at the Scotties and other high-calibre competitions is that you kind of have to raise your game, no matter what. So when you’re playing against somebody who’s won a world championship, or multiples, or has represented Canada at the Olympics, you really don’t have a choice, except to up your game. So in the past I’ve experienced playing with a team that does that. Just kind of rises to the occasion and part of it too is learning from that, learning from them, and looking at them as another competitor and playing one rock at a time and trying to forget the fact that you know that they have a gold medal around their neck.”

“I think we have a great chance of improving on our past performance at the Scotties,” stated Birnie.

“I feel like this team has worked tirelessly as a team over the last year, but as individuals or parts of teams for a number of years. Three of us ... Kerry, Kim and myself, last year we just chose to do a training year, rather than a competitive year and take that time to get more in sync with each other, work on our own technical skills, work on our mental game, so we’ve been working on this for a while, and I feel like ... we’ve put in the work and now we have to show up.

“Going out to Kelowna earlier this year was huge for not only experience, but confidence as well. We actually got to watch ourselves beat some of these great teams ... play really well against them. And being able to see ourselves do that increased out confidence in ourselves. Knowing that we can do it.”

The Birnie rink played in a Kelowna Cashspiel Nov. 5-7, beating Team Richards in an extra end, Team Cowan in a game which came down to the last rock, and losing another last-rock game to Team Gusulak.

When it comes to their approach to games, the Birnie rink has a balanced strategy.

“I would say the team that we have right now has a balanced approach, between offensive and defensive. And it does change, depending on the ice that we’re playing on, the team that we’re playing against – if we know that we’re playing against a team that literally never misses a draw, we might try to set them up with a few more hits, or try to make it a little more difficult for them to make their shots,” elaborated Birnie.

Birnie is confident that the event will not be adversely affected or cancelled due to COVID.

“I don’t think the Scotties will get cancelled. I think that the chances of that are very low. They’ve put a lot of time and effort into creating a safe space, or as safe as possible. Obviously, there’s risk in everything. I hope I’m not proven wrong.”

“I feel really honoured to be representing the Yukon,” she said. “I’m truly so happy that we were able to have a play down this year ... and it’s really special to be able to go and wear Yukon colours and be considered, even if only for a week or 10 days, to be ‘TeamYukon’,” stated Birnie.

“I’m just really excited for the opportunity to be able to go,” she added.

“I hope it doesn’t get cancelled. I hope that it continues and goes forward ... really grateful for everybody that has been a part of making it happen, both on the local level, as well as the national level. And again locally to our full team, to our coach Gord, to our new coach Bill, to Helen, who stepped in for us in a time of need, and all of our team. This is a great group of women who are going to be ... representing the Yukon.”