Canadian Mixed Curling Championships take over Swift Current

The 2023 Canadian Mixed Curling Championships are underway in Swift Current and Team Saskatchewan is excited to represent on not only home soil but at their home club.

Skip Shaun Meachem, vice-skip Kelly Schafer, second Chris Haichert, and lead Teejay Haichert are representing the Swift Current Curling Club, the host of the 2023 event, as Team Saskatchewan.

“I would love to come out on top for the city of Swift Current, for the fans, for our teammates. I think it would be a pile of fun,” Chris Haichert said.

Both Haicherts were a part of the last Saskatchewan team to win a Canadian mixed title in 2015 when skip Max Kirkpatrick was at the helm.

“I’m getting a little long on the tooth, I’m not getting any younger, so I have to put those [championship] wins up when I can,” Chris joked.

This time around they will try to bring the banner home with Meachem and Schafer instead.

• Download the CTV News app to get Saskatchewan news alerts on your device

“Chris brings lots of words of wisdom in one capacity or another so it’s great like everybody within our team has represented their country or province in some capacity. We’re all competitive, we’re all talented players and then to bring it all together for a mixed team, it’s fun! This is one of my favourite competitions,” exclaimed Schafer.

Schafer has called Canada home for over a decade but originally hails from another curling stronghold, Scotland. The very country that will host the Mixed Curling World Championships which amplifies the motivation for her to come out on top this week.

“The World Championships are held in Aberdeen in Scotland, which is really close to my hometown. I know everybody there so it would be pretty special that I’m playing in my home club right now for provincials and then I’d almost be going home to play in the World Championships back there,” she shared.

However the team is already ecstatic to get the opportunity to play in front of their home crowd this week.

“The fans here are extremely knowledge. They appreciate good shot making and that makes it great for all competitors to want to play in front of them,” said Chris.

“We always love representing Team Saskatchewan and it’s even more special to do it in our own club. The first opening day we had so many fans, it was a sell out! So it’s nice to have that support,” said Schafer.

Team Saskatchewan was 2-1 heading into their match against Team Yukon on Tuesday. They will face Team Ontario on Wednesday.

The Canadian Mixed Curling Championships run until November 11.The schedule and live scores can be found here.