Moose Jaw’s Holland looks back on the strange and unusual Scotties that was

In her decades of involvement in the sport of curling, Amber Holland has seen just about it all.

Provincial and national title wins, world championships, countless bonspiels and cashpiels, every kind of curling at every level of stakes you can imagine.

Nothing, absolutely nothing, will compare to what she and Sherry Anderson’s Team Saskatchewan went through at the 2021 Scotties Tournament of Hearts in Calgary over the last two weeks.

The event was the first to take place in the Curling Canada bubble in the Markin McPhail Centre and the first to deal with the massive number of protocols and restrictions due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. 

Holland took part in the event as the fifth with Anderson’s crew of third Nancy Martin, second Chaelynn Kitz, lead Breanne Knapp and coach Shane Kitz. It was far from Holland’s first trip to the event as a fifth -- through her years with Curl Sask she was almost the de facto alternate for many a Saskatchewan representative — but certainly the most unusual.

“It was definitely a different Scotties, in the first few days we were there, you got the feeling that this is so beyond what we’ve ever imagined,” Holland said while looking back at the event on Wednesday afternoon. “But once we started curling it was a lot more normal. A lot of times at those events, you have some time to curl, get some nutrition, rest and you’re back curling again, and once we started that curling kind of format, you just got engrossed in that so that felt really normal.”

The most difficult part of the whole situation came in the early going, as teams adjusted to the testing, the quarantining, the isolation, the lack of fans, pretty much everything that wasn’t on the ice. It was as far away from a normal Scotties as one can imagine.

“(At the start) you had to stay away from your teammates until you got the all-clear to be together with your masks on and still socially distanced,” Holland said. “So there were a lot of protocols off the ice that we had to adhere to, and early on, when we didn’t have the distraction of regular curling, it was tough to feel like you were part of a special curling event. 

For myself and Sherry, knowing what that event can be like traditionally, it was maybe a little harder for us to wrap our heads around it, but for the rookies, it just is what it is.”

The biggest difference on the ice was the complete and utter lack of sound outside of the games themselves.

No fans meant being able to hear air conditioners running and, as Anderson famously remarked, even toilets flushing on the concourse. As those who took in the 2020 Scotties at Mosaic Place in Moose Jaw, the steady din of 3,000 people in a building is a sound all its own. Now take that away and imagine how much different the atmosphere would be. 

“As competitors, you’re on the ice and so focused in the moment you don’t realize it, but sitting behind the sheet and not being a participant in the game, you really notice how quiet it is,” Holland said. “The ‘yeah, that was a great shot’ and nothing happening. And even when I got home and watched the final on TV, Kerri wins and it’s like ‘where’s all the excitement?’ You could tell it just didn’t have the same energy, and that’s one of the special things about that, going to a Scotties or any national championship in an arena, the energy you get from that crowd. Even the dull murmur of the thousands of people around you, and that was very different.”

Adding to the unusual situation was the fact Holland herself had a chance to play in a game. That’s right: for all the times she’s been a fifth, Holland had never taken the ice as an alternate in the past.

She ended up subbing in for Anderson — who was dealing with an ailing back — in Saskatchewan’s second Championship Pool game and dropped a 10-9 decision to Team Wild Card 3’s Beth Peterson.

“Sherry just needed a break, her body told her it wasn’t a good idea and she listened to it,” Holland explained. “So it was good, I felt pretty comfortable, I would have loved to have come off the ice with a win, but for the most part I give myself a passing grade. I thought I managed it okay and it was just a little disappointing not to get the win at the end of it.”

The game-to-game situation was a touch different, too, in that Holland’s experience is often far greater than the players she’s working as fifth for. That helps make her an unofficial assistant coach in most cases. But with Anderson -- now a 10-time Scotties competitor — it was more of an advisory role.

“As a fifth, how you support each player is a little different,” Holland said. “Sherry herself, it’s just a lot of talking about what shots you’re going to call and how you’re making them, seeing the different things and walking through that, where someone like Chaelynn, her first time at the Scotties, it was more like ‘okay, you’re going to experience this’ or ‘remember about this’. So everyone is a little bit different.”

All in all, Holland was happy with how things ended up for Team Anderson. 

“I’m sure the team is a little disappointed we couldn’t come through with a win or two in the championship pool once we got there, but now you’re playing the top teams and obviously things weren’t necessarily ideal with Sherry maybe not feeling 100 per cent,” she said. 

“We still had some good games, though, but just couldn’t stay as consistent through all eight to 10 ends… I think going into this the goal was to get to the championship pool and playoffs were maybe a bonus, so we’re pretty happy with how it all turned out.”