So, imagine you’re a season removed from junior hockey, a first-year pro in the minors and you get the call from the parent team to join the NHL squad on the road in Pittsburgh.
You’re dressing tomorrow night, penciled in the starting lineup. You’re taking the opening faceoff … against Sidney Crosby.
Now you know how Sarah Hill is feeling today, as the Newfoundland and Labrador skip prepares for her first Scotties Tournament of Hearts curling game in Calgary.
Hill is throwing last rock for the Remax Centre/St. John’s Curling Club foursome of vice-skip Beth Hamilton, Lauren Barron and lead Adrienne Mercer at the national women’s curling championship.
A 25-year-old from St. John’s, Hill is one of 27 curlers making their Scotties debut in Calgary and one of six skips at their first nationals.
The Newfoundland and Labrador entry, which plays its first game noon today against New Brunswick, also includes alternate Brooke Godsland and coach Laura Phillips.
The 2021 Scotties Tournament of Hearts kicks off today! Here's everything you need to know:
— Curling Canada (@CurlingCanada) February 19, 2021
Website ➡️ https://t.co/dOeO4bUzL0
Scores ➡️ https://t.co/FlzrdBRrVb@TSNCurling schedule ➡️ https://t.co/SqIEARsUyx
YouTube ➡️ https://t.co/emyQUZOIf4
Hashtag ➡️ #STOH2021 #HubCity2021 pic.twitter.com/Et0jNVSSte
Like Hill, Barron and Mercer are making their first appearances at the Scotties. Hamilton has been to the women’s nationals three times, and Phillips on five occasions as a competitive skip. She finished third in 1997 in Vancouver.
Newfoundland and Labrador has yet to win a Canadian Scotties title. And lately, the province has struggled, going 1-6 in each of the past two years.
Hill would love nothing more than to return home with a winning record, and perhaps even a playoff victory.
But she’s also a realist.
She’s curled in a couple of junior nationals, and a Canadian mixed.
“But I’ve never been to the big leagues before,” she quipped. “Eventually, you want to get up there and win one. But given that it’s our first time going, we’re sort of just looking to get some wins out of it, play some good games and learn from the experience.
“You’re never going to go up and win the first time, especially where we’ve been living here and not really getting the opportunity to play this caliber of teams.
“We want to get up there, and learn what we can and hopefully take that experience and move forward.
"This is one of the first steps, really.”
“To get a chance to play against curlers I grew up watching … I don’t even have the words for it. I don’t know how I’ll be able to stand upright the whole week.” — Sarah Hill
It will be a different Scotties for all the curlers in Calgary, who will be playing inside a bubble at the Markin MacPhail Centre at Canada Olympic Park.
No fans will be permitted in the building for an event that will be conducted in a way similar to the most-recent NHL and NBA playoffs.
“But we’re still so much looking forward to it,” Hill said just before leaving for Calgary.
“To get a chance to play against curlers I grew up watching … I don’t even have the words for it.
“I don’t know how I’ll be able to stand upright the whole week.”
One game she has highlighted on the schedule is a matchup against Manitoba’s Jennifer Jones noon (NT) Wednesday. Jones, the former Olympic gold medallist, world champion and six-time Canadian champion, who is making her 16th appearance at the Scotties, is truly an idol for Hill.
“Oh, she’s been my No. 1 for years,” said Hill. “Anytime she’s on TV, I have to watch. I can’t miss a game.”
N.L. SKED
Newfoundland and Labrador’s schedule at the 2021 Scotties Tournament of Hearts:
- Saturday — Defeated New Brunswick 8-7
- Sunday — Draw 6, 5 p.m,. vs Nunavut
- Monday — Draw 8, 5 p.m., vs Prince Edward Island
- Tuesday — Draw 10, noon, vs Manitoba and Draw 12, 10 p.m., vs British Columbia
- Wednesday — Draw 14, 5 p.m., Quebec
- Thursday — Draw 16, noon vs Wild Card 1 and Draw 18, 10 p.m., vs. Saskatchewan
Hill also admires and respects the young up-and-coming curling powers, like those teams skipped by Casey Scheidegger in Alberta and Northern Ontario’s Krista McCarville, neither of whom will be in Calgary.
“They give teams like ourselves hope,” Hill said.
Hill comes by her on-ice athletic talent honestly. Her uncle, Jack Hill, was a St. John’s Capitals hockey star who was inducted last month into the Hockey Newfoundland and Labrador Hall of Fame.
She started curling at age 10 or 11 at Bally Haly.
“I wasn’t much into hockey,” she said.
In a weird kind of way, the pandemic has helped her get to the Scotties.
Hill had been in Gander until recently, learning to become an air traffic controller, but the instruction was stopped country-wide because there are fewer planes flying these days.
So, she returned home to St. John’s, decided to do a few courses at Memorial University and resumed curling, eventually leading to a win in a best-of-five provincial Scotties final against Mackenzie Mitchell's rink,
“I’m putting all my eggs in the vaccine basket in the hope people will start flying again soon, and we’ll resume (air traffic control) training," Hill said.
Robin Short is The Telegram’s Sports Editor.
@telyrobinshort
