Rocque excited to play in backyard Pinty’s GSOC event
SHERWOOD PARK, Alta. — Kelsey Rocque caps her successful rookie season on tour just 15 minutes down the road from home.
The native of Fort Saskatchewan, Alta., is set to kick off the Humpty’s Champions Cup Tuesday night against Calgary’s Chelsea Carey at the Sherwood Park Arena Sports Centre.
Rocque, a two-time world junior champion, said it’s really exciting to play in a backyard Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling event.
“It’s nice not having to fly on a plane too, not complaining,” Rocque said with a smile. “I’m having tons of friends and family come this week and it’s awesome.”
The Humpty’s Champions Cup features all of the top event winners of the season in one final showdown to close out the year. The Edmonton-based team of Rocque, third Laura Crocker, second Taylor McDonald, and lead Jen Gates qualified by capturing the Red Deer Curling Classic in October, and the 22-year-old skip admitted she didn’t know then that it would lead to playing in the Humpty’s Champions Cup.
“I think a couple teams helped us out there,” Rocque said. “We’re happy to be here and it’s exciting.”
Rocque said the Red Deer win ranks among her rookie highlights, along with playing in the Pinty’s GSOC series, and also travelling to Korea where her team captured the CCT Uiseong Masters banking almost $60,000 that will definitely help pay off some of her tuition.
“I think my parents were a little happy I’ll get to help out with some tuition there,” she said with a laugh. “It was a nice amount of coin to bring home.”
Rocque and McDonald also helped guide the University of Alberta Pandas to a second consecutive CIS university championship. A special bonus for winning it this year is they will get the opportunity to wear the maple leaf once again and represent Canada at the 2017 Winter Universiade in Kazakhstan.
“Anytime you can wear the maple leaf on your back you have to take it,” Rocque said. “Taylor and I are thrilled along with the other girls that won with us. We’re looking forward to going.”
While playing in an event close to home has some advantages, Rocque did need to switch around one of her games because both her and McDonald have exams.
“Taylor and I missed a couple exams being at the Players’ Championship two weeks ago so we got them deferred to this week, which didn’t really help us but being home is really nice,” Rocque said. “We can drive after games and go write exams so it works out we can do both.”
NOTES: The Humpty’s Champions Cup is the seventh and final event of the 2015-16 Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling season. … The event is the second of two new tournaments added to the schedule this year along with the Tour Challenge, which opened the season in September. … The Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling returns for the 2016-17 season starting with the Masters, Oct. 25-30, in Okotoks, Alta.
