Alberta's curling teams are planning to sweep up the competition at the Special Olympics Canada Winter Games.
Rinks skipped by Graham Kryzanowski of Red Deer and David Rench of Calgary will rock the house next week at the St. Albert Curling Club.
The Kryzanowski team is stacked with Games experience. The front-end trio of Kelly Stock, Thomasina Payne and Rhonda Schochenmaier were silver medallists in the D division for Team Alberta at the 2008 winter nationals in Quebec City.
"They know what this is all about and they're pretty excited to get back there and try again," said Red Deer coach Heather Roberts.
Kryzanowski, a long-time participant at the Special Olympics western Canadian curling championships, and Mike Sugden are veteran curlers who have competed in various sports at summer nationals.
The team was formed to capture a provincial berth for the Games.
"They're pretty fired up. They're taking this quite seriously. They've been working hard," Roberts said. "Hopefully they're going to bring home a medal, but just knowing they're out there doing the very best that they can makes me happy."
The gold medallists in some of the sports at the Games – but not curling –– will represent Canada at the 2013 Special Olympics World Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
"Whether they get a gold medal or they come 10th, this is as far as they go so the main goal is to have fun," said Lynn Price, head coach for the Rench foursome. "My goal for them is to feel they played well."
The Calgary foursome won their division at provincials and was later granted a spot at the Games when one of the provinces was unable to send a rink.
"When they won the gold medal, needless to say they were very proud of that," Price said. "All the gold medal teams [in curling at provincials] are considered and then the teams for the Games are chosen based on different criteria. The Red Deer team was actually the team that was initially chosen and as host province we have first option to have a second team play and that was us."
Rench, the oldest athlete at the Games at age 66, will hold the broom for Matthew Winter, Mike Binda, Erin King and Jeff Riddell.
"They are very keen and very excited," Price said. "[Last week] they had a practice game wearing their Team Alberta uniforms at the Glencoe club and they were very proud to be wearing the uniforms and playing a real game to simulate the Games experience.
"They've also been meeting with their mental trainer to get prepared for all the fans that are going to be there and all the excitement."
In preparation for the Games the Calgary team gathered twice a week at the Glencoe and Calgary Winter Club for training sessions.
"They've been practicing extremely hard," Price said. "They've played a couple of games now and they're talking to one another and discussing the shots and making sure everyone knows what's happening. It's been great to watch it come together."
The Red Deer curlers play on separate teams in various leagues while sharpening their skills for the Games. Payne also curls on her dad's team in Clive.
"I'm really proud to see how far they have come with communication as a team and with general fitness," Roberts said.
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Curling is the third-highest sport for participation at the Games with 90 athletes. Teams curl a maximum eight ends per game with a two-hour time limit. Canadian Curling Association rules apply.
All the teams practice Tuesday and the preliminary games are Wednesday. The competition starts 8 a.m. Thursday and the finals in the four divisions go Saturday at 12:30 p.m.
"Based on the reports the coaches have sent in, the teams are put into groups and Wednesday is the seeding round. Teams play a minimum of three two-end games and from the seeding rounds they will then be divisioned," said Price, 53.
The paralegal with Ellert Law in Calgary has been involved with the Special Olympics movement for 10 years. This is her first winter nationals after coaching at three summer Games.
"Special Olympics is my passion. I'm involved in a number of sports and volunteering and helping with fundraisers and anything else I can do," Price said. "You can't help but love the athletes. They're wonderful people."
Roberts, 56, is pumped to attend her second winter nationals after the eye-opening experience in Quebec City.
"I definitely had the warm fuzzies there and I had so much pride in the athletes in how far they've come and how hard they worked," she said. "It was amazing to see everything they worked for kind of come to fruition."
Roberts said the quality of curling at the Games would surprise a lot of people.
"In the A division for instance they're amazing. They have tons of ability. The teams coming out of B.C. and Ontario have some really, really good curlers that I venture to say could curl quite successful in any men's league," said the Catholic Social Services employee in Red Deer.
Roberts became a Special Olympics' volunteer in 1983 as a swim coach and is committed to the movement.
"It's been wonderful. I've met amazing coaches, athletes, parents and people associated with Special Olympics. It also allowed me the opportunity to develop more of my own skills. I've been able to access some training that maybe I wouldn't have otherwise so there has been a lot of personal growth, too."
