A team from Yukon is competing in the Canadian Mixed Curling Championships in Canmore, Alberta, Nov. 7-14.

The team from Whitehorse is skipped by Terry Miller. Laini Klassen is the lead, her son Brayden Klassen is shooting second stones, and Laini’s sister Shani Rittel rounds out the team as the third. As Miller puts it, it’s a real “family affair for sure.”

“Team-wise we’ve only been playing with each other for the last two years, but we’ve got lots of curling experience. I think all of us, Laini, Shani, and Brayden have all been to a national championship or two ... when we first started playing together, we were a little off, but as we’ve played more and more games, we’ve become quite the little cohesive team going. It seems like things are in the right spot. We’re peaking at the right time to be going to nationals, that’s for sure.”

Miller explains how the team came together.

“I moved up here five years ago from Vancouver and I did a lot of competitive mixed in British Columbia ... obviously British Columbia has a lot more teams, a little bit more competitive ... we came close a few times in B.C., but moving up here, we have the opportunity – when Laini and Shani asked me if I wanted to play mixed, I said sure, and fortunately, we were able to win the Yukon Championship.”

Miller explains how the team won a berth in the nationals.

“Just like for any event, they have a playoffs ... we were down in Atlin (B.C.) to play down. There was three teams entered, it was a double round-robin, so we went undefeated, we beat both teams twice ... there was no playoff.”

For the nationals, there are two pools of seven teams, so each team plays six games in their pool, and then the top four teams in each pool go on to the Championship Pool, with the teams playing the ones from the opposite pool. The bottom three teams in each pool play off in a Seeding Round for the 2022 Canadian Mixed Championship.

The Championship Pool finishes up on Saturday and is followed by two semifinals Sunday. The winners of the semifinals play off to represent Canada at the 2022 World Mixed Championships, which take place in Aberdeen, Scotland Oct. 15-22. The losers curl off in a bronze medal game.

“Our goal is to get through our portion of the round-robin and get a place in the playoffs and see how it goes from there,” stated Miller.

Miller is feeling good about their chances in the championships.

“We have a tough time up here, because we don’t get the games in that a lot of these other teams do, but with the experience of all of us on the team, I’ve told them I expect us to be in the playoff pool, so be prepared to play a little extra games, and we’re definitely going to scare a few teams out there. We’re playing very well.

“Fortunately up here at the Whitehorse Curling Club we have very good ice conditions which benefits us when we go play on the places that hold national championships. They would only hold a national championship where the ice conditions are very good, and that part of the game, we’re going to be pretty solid on.

“With our shotmaking and calling the game, we’re definitely up there with the top teams. It’s just a matter of making the right shots at the right time.”

Miller said the competition is looking strong.

“There’s definitely some top teams. There’s a couple of teams, some of the players have been to the Briar and the Scotties, so there’s definitely a lot of national championship experience that will be at the event, so there’s not going to be any easy games. So we just throw them north-south, see what happens.”

The event is being live-streamed on Curling Canada’s YouTube page, including Team Yukon’s game Sunday evening versus Ontario. Team Yukon’s tourney got off to a tough start in that one, as Ontario staked themselves to an early 9-1 lead after four ends thanks to a scoring big with five in the fourth, then cruised to a 10-2 victory with Yukon conceding after six ends.

Miller's team looks to bounce back against PEI tonight, who also began the tournament with a loss.

The next live-streamed game for the Yukon is Tuesday night versus Saskatchewan.

As for how it feels to be representing the Yukon, Miller said “it’s amazing. To go to any national championship is definitely a great opportunity and it’s alway’s nice to be representing the Yukon ... Yukon teams don’t get a fair shake all the time, but it’s nice to go out there and get some respect on the ice and it’d always be nice to bring home a medal for up here. That would be fantastic.”

“We’re all looking forward to it, all excited and luckily we were able to curl up here, especially last year with the whole COVID thing, it’s nice to sort of get away for a few days.”

So does curling last year give Team Yukon an advantage over other teams?

“Definitely,” stated Miller. “Last year we were able to curl a full season up here and there was a lot of places that had no season whatsoever ... so I don’t think there’s any rust ... we should be good to go,

we’re peaking at the right time, and hopefully we’ll be able to translate that onto the ice in Canmore.”