Local curling foursome focus on teamwork

By Brady Grove, Times Reporter

The Strathmore and District Curling Club has seen no shortage of successful teams this year and that includes the U18 girls Team Molnar who won the Red Deer Bonspiel on Jan. 6.
Strathmore’s Team Molnar went 2-1 in round robin play and then won three straight playoff games, including beating Team Plett 5-3 in the finals.
Team Molnar consists of 17-year-old skip Cheldynn Molnar and her 15-year-old sister Sydnie Molnar, who plays second, both of Strathmore, who have been curling together for four seasons. New this season is third Paige Anweiler, 16, from Calgary and 15-year-old lead Macey Anderson from Black Diamond. According to Cheldynn, the four girls clicked right away.
“We just meshed really well and we knew how to communicate with one another,” she said. “We all went into the season with the same goals so that helped us.”
Cheldynn said the team began by focusing on how to have fun in what was supposed to be a growing season, while still having the end goal of making it to provincials. At the same time, the team vowed to be more competitive and motivated.
A big part of the change in mentality has been coach Andy Jones who stayed on full time after coaching one event in the spring of last year. This change has helped lead to more success for the team.
“I’ve been doing this for 20 years and I’ve never seen a team that just caught on to everything so quickly,” said Jones. “We’re about a year ahead of where I figured we should be.”
According to the Molnar sisters, communicating with Jones is a two-way street. He doesn’t just order them around, he wants to know what their thought process is when making a shot and why they made it, which has helped the girls learn better.
“At the beginning of the season before we had him, we all had a pretty good idea of how to do our role individually and work as a team,” said Sydnie. “But he’s really taught us to work better together and honestly taught us how we can win.”
As the season progressed, the aim of making it to provincials became more of an expectation rather than a goal. Provincials will be an uphill battle for the club because they fall on the younger side of their division.
“I was impressed that they set that goal at our goal-setting session (at the start of the season),” said Jones. “I thought it might be a stretch goal but now we don’t think it’s so much of a stretch goal.”
Expenses have been a challenge for the team this year, and so they’ve reached out to local and out-of-town businesses for support. According to Mike Molnar, dad of Cheldynn and Sydnie, expenses run about $12,000 to $15,000.
“All four girls love this sport. They have a real passion for it, and they look forward to every bonspiel, every game and every practice,” he said. “It’s a small price to pay for having your kids out of trouble and enjoying something.”