Nunavut skip excited to make history at Scotties

Bob Weeks

TSN Senior Reporter

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Those restless nights are due to the fact that on Thursday she’ll step on to the ice at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts as the skip of the first team to represent Nunavut.

“I think I’m really excited, but I’m nervous too at the same time,” said Chislett. “This is a big thing for us. We have realistic expectations, of course. We’re excited to be going and representing Nunavut for the first time.”

This will be the maiden run for a rink from Canada’s eastern-most territory at the national championship. Last year, the format for the Scotties was altered to include separate entries for the three territories as well as one from Northern Ontario. The four rinks were to play off to qualify one squad for the main competition, but Nunavut elected not to send a team. This time around, the association felt it was important to be represented.

Chislett has some national curling experience, having played in the Mixed and also at The Travelers Curling Club championship. But this is a big step up. Speaking from her office prior to departing for Grande Prairie, Alta., the controller for the city of Iqaluit was a bit nervous even doing an interview. Born on the north shore of Quebec to a family with roots in Newfoundland and Labrador, there is a delightful East Coast twang in her voice as she explains the challenges of curling in the north.

The team that’s comprised of Chislett, Denise Hutchings, Robyn Mackey and Jenine Bodner, hasn’t had a ton of preparation leading up to the Scotties. They play regularly at their club in Iqaluit, one of just three in the territory.

“It’s an open league, not just a ladies league,” she said. “We don’t really have that many ladies to have a league on its own, so we have an open league and our team plays regularly in that. We also split up and play mixed.”

To earn the territorial title, they had to defeat another team in their club. They were supposed to face against a representative from the club in Rankin Inlet, but at the last minute, it pulled out.

The only other facility in Nunavut, in Cambridge Bay, isn’t in operation this year.

Chislett’s team also hasn’t played any bonspiels, but it’s easy to understand why. The closest curling community to Iqaluit is Ottawa. That’s a three-hour plane ride away with tickets running roughly $2,000 a pop.

Still, the Nunavut rink is looking forward to the chance to curl, which will also mark the first time they’ll do so on arena ice.

“We want to go and be able to compete and see how we fare,” said Chislett. “I don’t want to not sound positive, but realistically we have to look at the challenges we face up here geographically. We don’t get out play a lot of other teams. There’s not really a lot of competition.”

For this week, however, she’ll share the stage with some of the biggest names in the game. That in itself will be quite a thrill.

“My brother called me a few weeks ago, early on a Saturday morning, and he said. ‘Oh my God, Geneva.’ I thought something was wrong. I said ‘What?’ He said, ‘I just saw your name right up there beside Jennifer Jones on TSN!’”

Chislett knows that being at the Scotties is a first step for her territory. She’s a trail blazer and she understands that. That’s why she elected to bring along Sadie Pinksen as the team’s fifth. Pinksen skipped Nunavut’s entry at the Canadian Junior earlier this year and made history by recording the territories first victory at a national championship.

It was a small step, for sure, but a very important one for the future of Nunavut curling.

“My feeling is that there should be equal opportunity for all the associations across Canada to be able to represent at some level,” she stated.

In spite of that, not many are giving her rink much of a chance of making the main draw. And that includes Curling Canada. The Nunavut team’s plane tickets for the ride home are scheduled for this Monday, just as the event is starting to heat up, although they’ve been told those will be changed should they qualify.

It will be a big moment when Chislett and her rink step on to the ice with their territorial patches on the backs of their jackets. Nunavut is finally joining the party and no matter how they fare, this is a first they will always remember.