Player Highlight: Kali Johnson, Women’s Curling

The second-year curler from Gainsborough, SK is excited to hit the ice with her teammates on the women's squad for Lakeland College. Following all three teams making the post season together last winter, a first in years for the Rustlers, Johnson said the veteran crew comes into this fall with bigger goals then simply making it  to the ACAC Championship.

"We have three second year players now, so we can show our rookie what to do moving forward," she said. "Nationals is a good goal to strive for, we were close last year before our skip got sick."

Johnson's confidence stems from having to do less work at the beginning of the season to develop chemistry. Competing as the third on the women's team, she said there's lessons they won't have to relearn.

"We all know each other well," she said. "Annaka Miettinen knows how we throw, Cira Hozack and I know how each other sweep, we get a sense when we need switches and you can read cues, each other's releases. It's all fine-tuned tuned stuff."

Assistant coach Brandon Cooksen said Johnson is an invaluable member of the Rustlers curling team.

"She embodies the Rustlers spirit through her incredible leadership, teamwork, and dedication to improve," he said. "Kali's athleticism and talent isn't only limited to the curling ice as she is a multi-sport athlete competing with the rodeo team as well."

Despite her success with being a dual sport athlete, that wasn't what originally attracted Johnson to Lakeland College. She had heard about their rodeo team and knew several of her friends were going, resulting in her taking Crop Technology

"I grew up on a farm in southeast, SK, and I wanted to be able to help them from afar while in school," Johnson said. "Farming is in our blood, but I can't drive a semi-truck to save my life, so I figured I had to help out in a different way."

Upon finding out Lakeland also had curling, she quickly fell into joining both programs. This made for a large learning curve in managing time between being on two very different teams, while keeping up with her course load.

It's a lot to juggle, the seasons overlap by three weeks around mid-term time," Johnson said. "I have great family and friends who help, and the professors are really understanding. Our coaches are also the best, they are really funny and make things interesting, even when curling gets boring."

"You must sacrifice some sleep to catch up on homework sometimes and I get up early in order to spend time with my horse. On the weekends, I usually have someone else drive the trucker trailer, so I can get in studying then."

Johnson said she's thought about taking her bachelor's in agriculture but is expecting to finish her studies after this year. While in practice, her focus individually is getting better at reading the rocks thrown and fine tuning her skills with the broom.

"Getting back on the ice, I forget how hard it is to read rocks and give my skip time," she said. It's something I've always wanted to work on, as well as being more consistent with my sweeping ability, having better stamina.

Over the next few weeks, the curling team will have practice and league play in vermilion throughout the week, before heading to Airdrie for the first ACAC bonspiel of the season Nov. 21-23, hosted by SAIT.