For the second year in a row, Quill Lake’s Rikki Schick is subbing for another player at the women’s curling provincials.
Danielle Waterfield, Team Mitchell’s third, was unable to play for the first six draws of the 2019 Viterra Scotties Women's Provincials because she had to complete her exams. She returned to the ice the evening of Jan. 24.
“I’ve curled with Jess [Mitchell, Team Mitchell’s lead] before, so that's kind of how they knew that I was in the area and I was able to curl with them,” Schick said.
Schick curled with Mitchell at the 2015 Junior Championship in Humboldt and subbed on Mitchell’s team at a Saskatchewan Women's Curling Tour event earlier this year.
In last year’s provincials in Melfort, Schick subbed for Stefanie Lawton’s team after her third, Stephanie Schmidt, came down with an ear infection.
“I curled three games with them, so that was an unreal experience,” she said. “It’s a little different than this experience because this one I knew a little while in advance, while last year was just an hour before the game type of thing.”
Schick has been preparing by practicing throwing some extra rocks, getting lots of feedback from the teammates and getting ready mentally.
“I haven't curled competitively this year, so it's been an adjustment getting back into the swing of things, but it's been a lot of fun.”
The biggest difference between this year and last year is Schick has lots of experience playing with and against the other members of Team Mitchell, while she had no such experience with Team Lawton.
Schick was raised in Pleasantdale.
“I was changing schools and my mom thought I should meet some people, so she put me in a curling clinic in Naicam and my coach told me I was a natural right off the start,” she said. “I kind of fell in love with sport and just went from there.”
Schick played in juniors, making it to the finals of the 2018 Junior Championship. She now works for MNP in Humboldt.
Someday, Schick said, she’d like to compete in the women’s provincials as a permanent team member.
“I'm currently working on my CPA, my chartered professional accounting designation, so it's a full time job,” she said. “Until I get that, I’m going to just take a step back and sub if anyone needs me and take a mental break.”
The curler acknowledged the efforts of the Humboldt Curling Club, CurlSask and all of volunteers to make the provincials possible
“I've volunteered at these things before and it takes a lot of people to make them as big of a success as this competition has been,” she said. “These people spend countless hours here preparing and making it perfect for us.”
