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CANADIAN WOMEN’S CURLING CHAMPIONS

This amazing Canadian team went through the 1970 season with 23 wins and only three losses.  The Schoenhals team curled out of the Nutana Curling Club.  They were the youngest team to play in the Canadian championships, and perhaps the youngest ever to have won the title.  The four girls were aged 19, 20, 21, and 22.

Dorenda and her team had won the Western Canadian University championship five successive years.  Like most Saskatchewan teams, the most difficult part of the Canadian championships was to win at home.  At the Northern playdowns they defeated former Canadian champion Joyce McKee gaining the opportunity to play at the provincial finals.

At the national championship, their record in the round robin was eight wins and two losses.  They played off in the morning against Manitoba with a 6-4 victory and won the championship in the afternoon by defeating British Columbia 7-4.  During the competition, Joan and Linda placed 80% of their rocks exactly where they wanted and won All-Star Awards for their feat.

During the year these young women athletes were the first curlers ever to use warm-ups prior to the games.  Their stretching exercises and warm-up exercises were such a novelty at the Canadian championships that people thronged around them to see what this new innovation was all about.

One other small notation might be made of the fact that Dorenda’s team really consisted, not only of four players, but four players and one small addition.  Dorenda was six months pregnant while participating in these Canadian championships.