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January 19, 2025

A Mid-Season Check In with Team Inglis - Elite Women's Curling

 

Team Inglis's Journey to the 2025 Ontario Scotties

For Team Inglis, the journey to the Curling Ontario's 2025 Women's Provincial Championships - the Ontario Scotties - is unique only to those teams who have earned the right to call themselves Team Ontario over the storied 69 year history of the event. Their win at last year's Ontario Scotties meant representing Ontario at Curling Canada's 2024 National Women's Championship - the Scotties Tournament of Hearts - a first for each member of Team Inglis.  

 

Be In The Know With SWSCD: Meet Elite Canadian Curlers Team Inglis
Meet Team Inglis: The Backstory on Skip Danielle Inglis
Meet Team Inglis: The Backstory on Vice Kira Brunton
Meet Team Inglis: The Backstory on Second Calissa Daly
Meet Team Inglis: The Backstory on Lead Cassandra de Groot
 

Now with a provincial championship title and national championship-level game play under their belts, the expectations around the Team's expected perfomance are higher. They will head to Cobourg, Ontario from January 20th to the 26th and the Cobourg Community Centre where this year's Ontario Scotties will be hosted by the West Northumberland Curling Club.  

 

2025 Ontario Women's Championships
January 19-26, 2025 at Cobourg Community Centre
Open Qualifier Jan. 3 – 5, 2025
4 Berths at Open Qualifier  
Double knockout event
Other Qualifications
Top eight CTRS standings as of Dec 16, 2024
Advance directly to Provincials
Provincial Championship
12 Team Triple Knockout
Page Playoff
Tournament of Hearts
February 14-23, 2025
Thunder Bay, ON
This event is open to female teams with no age restrictions.
(Source: Curling Ontario)

 

Skip Danielle Inglis, vice Kira Brunton, second Calissa Daly and Lead Cassandra de Groot are once again the collective force behind the team. They are also excited to welcome back Kim Tuck as their full-time alternate for the 2024-2025 season. Initially brought onto the team last year as their alternate player for the 2024 STOH and to provide extra support at the 2024 Ontario Scotties, Kim brings a wealth of experience and curling knowledge as a player with extensive success at the provincial, national and international levels of women's, mixed and mixed doubles play.

Together with Coach Steve Acorn, the team has worked hard to learn key takeaways from this year's up and down curling season and collectively create a game plan that they hope will ultimately translate into a second provincial championship title and a return to the 2025 STOH as Team Ontario. 

Team Inglis is based out of the Ottawa Hunt Club located in Ottawa, Ontario.

 

(Source: Team Inglis Instagram 

 

SWSCD enjoyed the chance to check in with Team Inglis to learn more about what the team's biggest challenges have been to date; what they think of their successes so far; their thoughts on how the season's events have worked out for the team; some insight into how each player manages their compete/work/home life balance and more. 

 

Head to Team Inglis' SWSCD page and team website for lots of extra team details, live scores and more. You can also follow along on their FacebookInstagram and X (Formerly Twitter) social media pages.

 

 

SWSCD: What’s been the biggest challenge you’ve faced as a team so far? How have you chosen to work through it as a team?

 

TI:  One of our biggest challenges has been balancing our individual schedules with the demands of competing and training at a high level. With team members juggling work, personal commitments, and travel for events, it can sometimes feel overwhelming to stay consistent. We’ve worked through this by prioritizing open communication and creating clear goals for the season.

Additionally, we focus on staying adaptable—whether it’s adjusting practice schedules or taking time to reset after a tough event. By staying united and leaning on each other, we’ve been able to overcome these challenges and grow stronger as a team.

Certainly, a second challenge is recognizing that after our team enjoyed such a successful 2023/24 season, there can be a strong expectation that we will be able to be equally strong in our 2024/25 season.  To manage such feelings, we’ve worked hard to take every up and down as a learning experience and continue to put in valuable practice time and energy towards getting better every day. We believe it's important to take the highs and the lows together while focusing our efforts on growth both as athletes and people.

 

 

SWSCD: What’s been your biggest success to date as a team? How do you help each other experience the small wins too as you’ve progressed through the season this year?

 

TI:  Winning Curling Ontario's 2024 Women’s Provincial Championship title last January has been our biggest accomplishment so far. It was an incredible moment for us as a team and a testament to all the hard work we’ve put in.

But we also make a point to celebrate the small wins along the way. After every game, we reflect on what went well—whether it’s a clutch shot, strong communication, or simply keeping a positive attitude through challenges. Those little moments remind us that progress happens step by step, and it keeps us motivated as we move toward our bigger goals.

It's also important to recognize that one of our strengths as a team is our ability to have a strong balance of dialing in and being serious yet also being able to let loose and have a good time together. Any sport takes a lot of work and travel to compete at a high level. To be able to have a good time while doing so makes it that much more worth it. 

 

 

SWSCD: With a number of bonspiels under your belt as a team, would you have any recommendations to the organizers in terms of how to make your experience competing at them better/more enjoyable/rewarding for you and your teammates? 

 

TI:  Our team truly appreciates all the hard work that goes into organizing events, and the experiences have been great overall. We're also grateful to the members of any organizing committee who take the time out of their busy lives to put together the events we compete in. We have experienced some exceptionally run events over the years that have featured bands, entertainment, great food, games and more.

With that said, our first suggestion to organizers is to work towards a more standardization of event formats and schedules. Having more consistent formats that are widely accepted could make it easier for teams to plan and prepare for events. It would also create a smoother and more predictable experience for players, especially when navigating busy schedules.

A second suggestion we have is to consider adding a women's side to the men's events that have bigger prize purses. With the exclusion of Curling Canada and Grand Slam of Curling events, there were 3 tour events on the men’s side this season with prize purses exceeding $100,000. In comparison, the highest prize purse on the women’s side was $50,000 offered at the RBC Dominion Securities Western Showdown in Swift Current, Saskatchewn.

 

 

SWSCD: Switching gears, we would love to know one thing each of you do to manage the hectic pace that the season brings and what you do to create a little bit of balance to your compete/work/home commitments? Is it something you would recommend other elite athletes try for themselves too?

 

Cassandra:  Finding a balance is always challenging, but I think carving out time for things that bring you joy is so important.  I teach a weekly fitness class at Movati here in Ottawa, and while the physical benefits are wonderful, it’s the mental escape that I value most.  I also make sure to prioritize time with friends and family between events.  I have such a beautiful community of people in my life and their love and support truly fill my cup.

 

Calissa:  For me, physical recovery is key to staying balanced during the season. I prioritize getting enough sleep because it’s essential for both physical and mental performance. I also include other recovery practices like stretching, using a sauna, and active recovery routines to help my body stay strong and resilient. These habits not only improve performance but also help prevent burnout, which is so important when balancing competition, work, and personal life. Finding time for recovery is something I’d absolutely recommend to other athletes—it’s a great way to ensure you’re performing at your best while maintaining a healthy balance in life.

 

Kira:  I personally think my enjoyment of the sport and everything associated with it such as travel, training, etc. is what keeps me motivated to compete. If I notice this motivation is lacking I’ll make more of an effort to bring that love of the sport back. Whether that involves playing a league game with friends, having a fun practice, or just getting out and moving my body in a less planned/structured way, I think staying in tune with what my mind and body need allows me to get the most out of myself later. Burnout is something we all have to keep an eye on so noticing and changing behaviour before it gets too bad is especially important during our busy season. Recognizing that rest is sometimes the best thing we can give ourselves is something that took me way too long to learn as a young athlete.

 

Danielle:  Creating a balance is always a challenge. I once read that for elite athletes there’s no such thing as true balance and I believe that. The key for me is staying in the moment wherever I am. If I’m on the ice, my body and mind are there and nothing else going on in life touches that. When I’m working/at home, I focus on prioritizing the people and tasks in front of me. All we can ask of ourselves is to do the best we can in any given scenario.

 

 

SWSCD: Our last question is completely unrelated to curling but still an important one for each player to answer -  do you have a favourite flavour of ice cream? If so, what is it?

 

Cassandra:  We love pretty much everything from the Merry Dairy, but my personal favourite is their Mint Chip. We might be biased, but I think we’d all agree that they really do make the best ice cream. The line up out the front door most summer afternoons would support our argument. We are so lucky to have had their support these past two seasons. 

 

Calissa:  My favourite is the Nanaimo Bar flavour from Merry Dairy, a fantastic local ice cream shop in Ottawa. They’ve been such a wonderful supporter of our team, and their ice cream is absolutely amazing. It’s always a treat to stop by their shop after an event or a busy week. If you’re ever in Ottawa, I’d highly recommend checking them out.

 

Kira:  I’m a big fan of any fruit flavoured ice cream. I’ll have to give a special shout out the Merry Dairy’s blueberry lemon flavour and bonus points if it’s in a waffle cone.

 

Danielle:  My weakness is ice cream, so I have a hard time choosing just one flavour. We’re so fortunate to have a local Ottawa ice cream shop, Merry Dairy, on board as one of our sponsors and I love how they rotate their flavours seasonally. Right now, I’m all about the holiday ice cream and Peppermint Crackle is right up there as a fav.

 

 

 

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