HIGH ACHIEVERS: Two-time Ontario champion Danielle Inglis off to second Scotties Tournament of Hearts

By Martin Cleary

During a recent phone interview where Danielle Inglis was answering a raft of questions, she decided to ask herself a query.

“There’s more to life than curling?” she wondered out loud in response to what interests she has outside curling.

Well, maybe yes and maybe no.

Inglis is the owner of a gentle giant, her Great Dane. And she loves to travel, which is a big part of curling.

But other than that, curling is the key that starts her engine, which seems to be revving all the time, whether as an athlete, a coach or a full-time employee.

“I love the passion the people have for it and the people. In the end, it’s the people,” Inglis enthusiastically explained about her attachment to curling. “I’ve made a lot of friendships and it’s social. I’m competitive by nature and I enjoy that part.”

Inglis, 36, has spent almost 12 years working for Curling Canada, which is based in Ottawa, as its co-ordinator of social media and web content.

She works from her home in Whitby, ON., where she loves to coach “as much as possible.” Whether it’s private or group lessons or camps, Inglis is into spreading the word about curling.

But at this time of the year, Inglis is all about competitions, which has taken her and her rink of third Kira Brunton, second Calissa Daly, lead Cassandra de Groot and alternate Kimberly Tuck to six Ontario cities, Calgary, Charlottetown, Halifax and Swift Current before reaching Thunder Bay.

You’ll find the Inglis rink on the Fort Williams Gardens’ ice for the next 11 days at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts Canadian women’s curling championship. Competition is scheduled to start Friday for the 18 teams.

Representing Ontario for the second straight year as provincial champions, Inglis will play eight round-robin games in Pool B against Kerri Einarson of Gimli, MB, Kaitlyn Lawes of Winnipeg, Christina Black of Halifax, Kate Cameron of Winnipeg, Laurie St-Georges of Dollard-Des-Ormeaux and Laval, PQ, Kerry Galusha of Yellowknife, Brooke Godsland of St. John’s, NL, and Bayly Scoffin of Whitehorse.

Lead Lisa Weagle of Ottawa and third Jamie Sinclair of Osgoode, ON, play for the St-Georges rink.

The Ottawa Curling Club’s Rachel Homan, third Tracy Fleury, second Emma Miskew, lead Sarah Wilkes and alternate Rachel Brown are the defending champions and will play as Team Canada in pool A.

At the 2024 Scotties in Calgary, which was the first for Inglis as a skip, the Ottawa Hunt and Golf Club rink went 3-5 and missed the playoffs. But it was the ultimate learning experience, which could benefit Inglis in her second appearance. (Inglis won a silver medal at the 2021 Scotties as the alternate on the Homan rink, which represented Ontario.)

“It didn’t feel like that (3-5),” Inglis recalled about the 2024 Scotties. “We had two losses that shouldn’t have been losses. We learned mostly that we were meant to be there and we were able to win games. We learned how to deal with the pressure.”

If they’ve learned that lesson well, a few more wins could put them in a playoff position for the first time.

“Our focus is to win,” she added directly. “We also want to have a strong showing (by earning more points) and that will help us go a long way to our ultimate goal of going to the Olympic trials (Nov. 22-30 in Halifax).”

The Inglis rink enters the national championship on a positive roll, after winning the Ontario title with a 6-1 record in Cobourg. Up to that point, the 2024-25 season has been one of slow growth through 10 competitions, two playoff berths and a 24-23 win-loss record.

“This season has been a learning and developing season for us, making technical changes at the beginning,” Inglis explained. “We haven’t had a lot of ice time before big-game situations. Our record doesn’t reflect how we’ve played this season.”

The elite, competitive curling season started in late August and early September, but Inglis wasn’t able to find ice for her rink at that point. The players, who all live in Ottawa except Inglis, have practised as a team either a few days before a competition and/or a few days after the event.

Despite the challenge of finding more practice ice, Inglis is pleased her team is more consistent with its shot-making this season.

“We analyzed everything from delivery to sweeping, etc. Everything was on the table,” Inglis outlined.

“When you make technical changes at the beginning, you need more practice time to implement things better. We didn’t have that much practice ice. There’s not that much around the country. We did what we could in a limited time.”

Team Inglis developed its game playing at a variety of levels this season, including the HearingLife Tour Challenge Tier 2 event in Charlottetown, which was part of the Grand Slam of Curling circuit. Inglis lost all three games in the event.

A week before their Grand Slam Tier 2 event, Inglis was one of 16 teams in the one-and-done PointsBet Invitational. Inglis lost 9-2 in eight ends to Kayla Skrlik of Calgary, after trailing only 3-2 after five ends.

“If we didn’t win a game, it was close. That has been the theme of our season,” Inglis said.

When Inglis took her rink to the Ontario championship as the defending champion, the goal was straightforward – focus on the game at hand and don’t let things go awry.

After losing its opening game 7-6 to Hollie Duncan of Woodstock, Team Inglis put together six straight wins, including the championship game by an 8-4 margin over Chelsea Brandwood of Niagara Falls.

“Whether you’re playing provincial or national events, you learn to deal with elevated pressure. We had targets on our back. But we knew we must bring our best game,” Inglis said.

“I was so proud of how we played. We lost our first game, but got comfortable with the ice from there. We gathered so much information about the ice, throwing and sweeping. It felt good. We were in a zone.

“It was incredible (to win a second title). It was so amazing to do the first time. Last year, we had a strong season. This year, we’re clawing our way through. It’s another incredible feat and I’m proud of our accomplishment.”