KAMLOOPS, BC – Robyn Silvernagle spent her Sunday at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts taking calls for the Sandra Schmirler Telethon and playing the game she loves on the national stage.
It was a return to normal for the Saskatchewan native Skip after a few years without ice.
The last time curling fans saw Silvernagle with the Scotties was in 2020 at Moose Jaw, Sask’s -5 record, which was good enough to put their side in the championship pool.
A lot has changed for the 35-year-old since then.
“It’s wonderful. It’s so much fun,” Silvernagle remarked upon her return to the Tournament of Hearts. “I think I just appreciate it a lot more with everything. It puts everything into perspective and I think you enjoy those little moments a little bit more.” .”
In September 2021, Silvernagle and her husband Chad welcomed their first child, Kolt.
Now 16 months old, Kolt is doing much better and is here in Kamloops at the Sandman Center this week to cheer on his mom and team Saskatchewan at the Tournament of Hearts.
But the journey here was not easy for the Silvernagle family.
Kolt was born with a detached esophagus and had several bouts of pneumonia in the first few months of his life. He underwent eight surgeries, including heart surgery, which left him hospitalized for 304 days, most of which were spent in intensive care. Due to the COVID-19 restrictions, Robyn and Chad were the only ones able to spend time with him in the hospital.
“He’s a soldier,” Silvernagle said. “It’s great to have him here and to have the opportunity to come onto the rink.”
Sunday marks the 21st annual Sandra Schmirler Day at the Tournament of Hearts as the telethon raises money to support the purchase of life-saving equipment for premature babies.
The day has always been special for Silvernagle as she shares the same hometown of Biggar, Sask., with Schmirler, the legendary hair curler who died in 2000 at the age of 36 after a battle with cancer.
Now it means even more.
“The Sandra Schmirler Foundation has been a big part of our journey,” said Silvernagle. “We know a lot of the equipment Kolt used was donated by them [Sandra Schmirler Foundation]. We encourage everyone to donate to the Sandra Schmirler Foundation.”
With her baby spending so much time in ICU, curling obviously wasn’t on Silvernagle’s mind.
Silvernagle played a very limited schedule last season, including Saskatchewan playdowns, but didn’t know what her curling future would be this season after her team disbanded.
After a few chats with her good friend and former teammate Kara Thevenot — the pair won the bronze medal together at the 2019 Scotties in their first appearance — it was realized there was nothing to lose by throwing a team together for playdowns last month.
“Kara and I were talking, kind of joking, because we’ve been curled up for a long time,” Silvernagle explained. “We were just kidding at the time when I was like, ‘I’m not going to curl this season,’ and we were like, ‘Who knows, maybe we’ll put a team together for playdowns.’ As the time drew near, we asked ourselves, “Are we going to do this or not?”. So we did it.”
Team Silvernagle, including third Kelly Schafer, second Sherry Just and leader Thevenot, assembled their team on time and only trained once before participating in a last-chance qualifier in early January.
In the provincial games at North Battleford, Silvernagle and Co. turned the tide after an opening loss and topped the table, highlighted by an 8-4 win over Team Nancy Martin in the finals.
“It was a wild ride. By getting together as a team at the last minute and then getting off to a rocky start in the playdowns,” she told Silvernagle. “We almost lost two in a row and we were like, ‘Oh, oh, maybe we’re going home here.’
It doesn’t hurt if you can bring a player with Schäfer’s experience into the squad. The 41-year-old Scot, who knows she lives in Swift Current, Sask., represented Britain at the 2006 and 2010 Winter Olympics and has appeared five times at the Women’s Curling World Championships, beating Scotland to silver in 2010 .
“She’s like a calming influence. She’s lively, yet she knows how to calm me down when I’m trying,” Silvernagle said of Schafer. “I know she’ll make the big ones when it counts.”
Saskatchewan gets into the action with the Scotties on Sunday and holds a 1-1 record after beating Alberta and losing to Alberta Nova Scotia.
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