Chaelynn Kitz, lead of the Sherry Anderson rink, recently helped the team advance to the final of this year’s Viterra Scotties women’s provincial curling championship held in Melville.
The Andererson rink was unable to beat the Robyn Silvernagle team in the final, losing 8-5.
Although Chaelynn did not walk away a provincial champion, she did demonstrate tremendous sportsmanship and walked away with the tournament’s Marj Mitchell Sportsmanship Award.
Speaking about the honour of receiving the Marj Mitchell Sportsmanship Award, Kitz said “The fact that Marj Mitchell is from the Oxbow area, it was really cool bringing that back to the southeast. It’s also an award that all the other curlers vote on for who should receive it. The fact that all my [curling] peers thought of me as having sportsmanship, excellence and politeness that week was really cool.”
Kitz was called to join the Anderson rink after lead Aly Jenkins died during childbirth this past October; it was the first time Kitz curled with Sherry Anderson’s team at the provincial level.
Even without playing together for long, the team was able to win three straight games to get to the final against Team Silvernagle.
Team Silvernagle will now represent Saskatchewan for the second straight year at the 2020 Scotties Tournament Hearts, taking place February 15 – February 23 2020 in Moose Jaw.
Chaelynn is a granddaughter to Penny & Garry Suehsschlof who live northwest of Langenburg. Penny was able to see Chaelynn curl in Melville. The Suehsschloff grandparents mentioned they’re proud of Chaelynn for her accomplishment.
Shane Kitz coached her previously growing up and is still involved with her curling events.
Tara Kitz-Becker of Churchbridge is her proud aunt and Calvin and Linda Kitz who also live in Churchbridge are her grandparents.
Tara said “My girls and I made it to a lot of the games. She curled amazing, shooting [great] and sweeping like a rock star. She definitely made an impression there this year. It was a hard loss in the final but winning the Marj Mitchell award for sportsmanship at the end made it a pretty special ending. She is also a mixed doubles curler winning the green jacket last year which took them on to curl against some big names and they did very well also.”
When reached for comment, Chaelynn Kitz said the experience “was awesome. I have so much family close, seeing them in the stands while I was curling, then all of them leaning over the boards after to give me fist bumps or hugs after the game, it was something special. The next Scotties are in Estevan next year, by my home, so it will be really special for that to happen again there.”
On her success and joining the Anderson rink, Kitz commented “I had some success in Juniors making it to the final a couple of years ago. Back in March I joined the [Anderson] team to join them for the season. Sherry is so established in the curling community so it was cool to get my name out there and play really well. It was great to peak at provincials, that’s what every curler wants.”
Kitz is 22 and in her final year of Kinesiology at the University of Saskatchewan. Along with her boyfriend, they stay busy learning about Kinesiology and competing together in mixed doubles curling. Mixed doubles provincials are at the end of the month. They made it to nationals the last two years and are aiming to attend again this year in Portage, Manitoba. She said “it’s a lot faster” and likes that she can tie in the competitive activity while spending time with her boyfriend.
The coach of the Anderson rink, Gerald Shymko, resides in Calder
Speaking about her coach, Chaelynn said “I knew of him, bringing him on as coach was really cool. He has a lot of experience and knowledge of the game. He knew my grandpa and my uncle Perry and has ties to my family too.”
Gerald Shymko coached the rink for the first year at the Scotties. Gerald said the team chooses their coach. “We got so close. Our goal was to win it. Our skip has been there numerous times and she’s also a three time Canadian Senior champion, a two time Senior World champion, and going for her third Worlds in a row this April. We had some local flavour with Chaelynn playing lead for the first time. She was just awesome. I think in nine games straight she was never under 90% [accuracy]. If this was hockey and you had a first round draft pick in the world, she’d be my draft pick.”
Her dad is Shane Kitz who coached Chaelynn (the oldest) and his other two daughters. Shymko said “He’s done a great job right from little to last year when he was coaching his own daughter.”
The Marj Mitchell award is very prestigious. Shymko mentioned it is picked by the players and it couldn’t have gone to a more deserving player this year. Marj Mitchell was a Saskatchewan curler who won highly influenced the sport.