The Carman Collegiate girls curling team is your 2023 provincial champion.

The squad made up of Shaela Hayward, Rylie Cox, India Young, and Keira Krahn, went undefeated in The Pas to capture a banner for their school. Skip Shaela Hayward outlines how it feels to finish the season on top.

"It was super exciting, and we're really proud we could bring (a banner) back to our school for the second time," says Hayward. "It was a really great way to end the season for us and just a super exciting win."

Hayward notes they were able to play their best when it mattered the most.

"That was probably our best-played event all year," Hayward explains. "We put a lot of work in this year, and I think it showed at provincials. The ice was a little bit tricky but we managed to figure it out fairly quickly in all of our games. I think that gave us a huge advantage. Overall, we played really well all weekend."

Team Hayward won all their six games by at least four points, with multiple victories coming by eight or more. The skip says their hardest matches came against the Carberry Cougars, who they ended up playing in both the A-side and B-side finals. Hayward says playing this team prior to the championship game gave them some extra confidence.

"We knew their game a little bit, and we knew they were going to be tough," Hayward continues. "It was really exciting when that game was over. We played really well that game, and so did they."

The Carman squad is not only back-to-back provincial champions but they have yet to lose a single match in two years at the year-end tournament.

"It feels really good, and we're super proud of that. We put a lot of hard work in this year and had some tough losses. So, this is a really good win to end the season. It's so nice to play strong and bring home that banner."

Team Hayward is a group of four Grade 11 students, so they will have the opportunity to complete the three-peat next year.

"We've definitely thought about it, and we'd love to get the opportunity to do that," says Hayward. "We're all lucky to be the same age, from the same school, and play in the regular season together. It would just be really special if we could do that in our Grade 12 year. That's one of our goals going into next year."

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