Silvernagle’s loss stings, but a learning experience too

All the hard work that Robyn Silvernagle, Dayna Demers, Cristina Goertzen, and Kara Thevenot had put in over the past five months ended right then and there.

Their effort wasn’t quite enough.

Two days after that loss, the pain is still there.

“Playing so well all week and then coming up a bit short, it really really sucks,” Silvernagle said in a phone interview on Tuesday. “It’s still really hard. It’s something that we worked really hard for all season.

“We wanted to be playing in that final and we did that. Now we have the experience – we didn’t make the final last year. Next year we have that experience and we’re going to learn from it and continue forward.”

There’s no doubt coming that close and falling short stings, but looking at the positive is something Silvernagle is already doing.

“We can hold our heads high and be proud of how we played and performed,” she said. “It’s definitely disappointing, but it’s just the beginning. It’ll be OK.”

Not only did the North Battleford rink come within an end of winning it all, but they came from behind to take the lead in the finals.

They were down 4-0 after just three ends, yet managed to claw their way back, which wasn’t easy to do.

“We knew we could fight back and I’m proud of the girls for not letting it get out of hand,” Silvernagle said. “It’s hard [to come back] but I mean you have nothing to lose. It’s like, ‘Well, go throw as best as you can and fight back.’ You’re down by lots of points anyway, so just play well and hope that it works out. [It took] a lot of determination I guess to not just mentally give up.”

During the round robin, Team Silvernagle coach Gerald Shymko noted how focused his team was. As a provincial champion himself, he knows what it takes to win.

Afterwards, his encouraging words didn’t change.

“[Shymko] actually had messaged me and he was like, ‘If this was an NHL draft, you would be my number one pick for a skip,’” Silvernagle said with a chuckle. “He was really proud of us.”

Although the women’s curling season is now done just like that, Silvernagle isn’t quite ready for the off-season.

She will compete in the mixed doubles provincials in Saskatoon from Feb. 16-19.

After that, however, her life will be quite different.

Despite curling at a very competitive level, there simply isn’t enough money in curling – save for a select few – to curl as a full-time profession in Canada.

That’s why she said the off-season and the curling season is like having two different lives.

“We kind of live our second lives now that curling is over. Curling is our winter life and then we have our off-season life,” she said. “Other countries, they will support and make that your full-time job but not in Canada. So we get sponsors and that definitely helps because without them there’s no way that we’d be able to take that much time off and pay for everything.”

In the off-season she still keeps in touch with her rink, but it’s a much different pace than during the season.

Before they know it, however, the 2018 season will be upon them, as it begins in September.

“The whole provincial was an amazing experience,” Silvernagle said. “It will definitely stick with us for a while.

“It’s amazing how much support we got, whether it was a win or a loss. And hearing from people we don’t even know, it just feels really really special.”

Nathan Kanter is battlefordsNOW’s sports reporter and voice of the Battlefords North Stars. He can be reached at Nathan.kanter@jpbg.ca or tweet him @NathanKanter11

by Nathan Kanter

Silvernagle’s loss stings, but a learning experience too

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