There was some significant curling news on Monday, as 11-time provincial champion Andrea Kelly of Perth-Andover, New Brunswick announced she will be joining Krista McCarville’s Northern Ontario team for the 2023-24 curling season. McCarville will have a five-person squad as Kelly will play third, while Kendra Lilly, Ashley Sippala and Sarah Potts will rotate on the front end according to TSN. Kelly will join the team as the import.
Kelly was the New Brunswick provincial champion in 2006, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2019, 2020, 2022 and 2023. She won the bronze medal at the 2022 Scotties Tournament of Hearts in Thunder Bay, Ontario. Ironically, that is where McCarville’s team is from.
The McCarville change is one of numerous changes announced by Canadian curling teams. On March 21 it was announced that Casey Scheidegger and her sister Jessie Haughian of Lethbridge, Alberta would both take a step back from curling as they are pregnant and expecting in June.
Meanwhile on the men’s side, Canadian Olympic gold medalist Brad Jacobs of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario will join Reid Carruthers’s team out of Manitoba next year as a third. Jacobs won the gold medal as a skip for Canada at the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi. Also it is announced that British Columbia champion skip Jacques Gauthier will join Kevin Koe’s Alberta team next year and play second. The team will still have third Tyler Tardi and lead Karrick Martin. Koe was needing a second as Brad Thiessen announced he is taking a step back from curling. It should be noted that Gauthier and Tardi are first cousins.
