Former Oak Lake resident Janelle Vachon will be calling the shots against the best women’s curling teams in the province and maybe the country this coming winter.
After two years of playing on the front end of Briane Meilleur’s rink, Vachon will now skip her own women’s competitive curling team.
Playing third for her will be Gimli’s Rebecca Lamb while the Winkler duo of Holly Friesen and Brooke Friesen will be her second and lead, respectively. The rink will play out of the Stonewall and Brandon Curling Clubs.
“Enthusiastic group”
“I’m looking forward to working with a new and very enthusiastic young group of girls and to being back in the skipping position, the first time since juniors,” said Vachon, who played second last winter. “It will be an adjustment to skip at the women’s competitive level, but I am looking forward to the challenge and the season ahead!”
The daughter of Louis and Sherri Vachon found herself looking for a new team when Meilleur decided to join an all-skip rink with Shannon Birchard, Kerri Einarson, and Val Sweeting.
“The last two years curling on Team Meilleur were amazing,” Vachon said. “The thing I enjoyed the most was the amazing opportunities I was given while competing with the team. It was amazing to step into the elite level of curling and compete in big events such as the 2017 Canadian Meridian Open Grand Slam and most exciting of all, the Olympic pre-trials. My highlight would definitely be playing the final games of the Olympic pre-trials. The experience is one I will never forget.”
Last winter Vachon also had the opportunity to play mixed doubles with her brother at provincials. They lost the C-side qualifier game to the eventual winners of the event.
“It was very cool that I was able to compete with my brother, Marc. It was a bit of a learning curve for us to figure out how to work together the best as a team. We haven't ever really curled together much before this so it was awesome to get the opportunity to compete with him,” said Vachon, who is working full-time for the second summer for Brown Sugar Produce, a family-run vegetable farm just outside of Brandon.
