In the Middaugh family, curling is a right of passage. For Kelly Middaugh, the sport has been part of her life since she was a young girl learning how to slide rocks down a sheet of ice, under the tutelage of her parents, Wayne and Sherry, who have both competed on the national stage.
Now, the 23-year old Outdoor Adventure Naturalist student at Algonquin College’s Pembroke Waterfront Campus is trying to manage her school work while preparing to compete in her first Scotties Tournament of Hearts, the national women’s curling championship, which will be held in February in Kamloops, British Columbia.
To get to the national championship, Middaugh connected with a team that played out of the Glenmore curling club in Montreal, skipped by Laurie St-Georges. Middaugh is not bilingual but she had no concerns about crossing provincial boundaries to compete in the Quebec championships with the St-Georges team. She knew she could help the team and wasn’t worried about any language barriers, focusing on playing to the best of her ability. Her teammates helped provide translations when it was needed.
At the provincials, the St-Georges club played well, finishing the round robin in the six team tournament with a 4 and 1 record, before winning two close games in the semi-final and final to advance to the Scotties Tournament of Hearts. The provincial championships had been postponed the last two years in Quebec because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Left to Right-Team Quebec: Laurie St-Georges (skip) Alanna Routledge (second) Emily Riley (vice) Kelly Middaugh (lead)
It turns out attending Algonquin College’s Pembroke Campus played a role in Middaugh’s decision to choose to play with them, even though she has lived most of her life in Victoria Harbour, Ontario and had other opportunities to participate in the Ontario provincial championships.
“It’s a pretty simple story on how I ended up playing for Team St-Georges out of Quebec. I knew I was coming to Pembroke for the Outdoor Adventure Naturalist program and figured with the location of the town it was easier to get to Montreal than it would be to drive to Toronto to play with most Ontario teams,” says Middaugh.
Since coming to Pembroke, Middaugh has been a regular at the Pembroke Curling Club. She’s made new friends and while in school, she’s been encouraging her classmates to give curling a try, even offering to provide lessons, while getting to know the local curlers. She plays every Monday night and given her recent success she has become a bit of a celebrity at the club.
People enjoy watching her play, noting the precision in her shots. She’s happy to offer advice to other curlers, the same way her parents taught her how to play the game that she loves.
“I felt accepted into the community right away and everyone has been so supportive throughout the season. After winning the Quebec Provincials, Brenda Slomka, a member at Pembroke Curling Club and a part of the Algonquin College staff, made me this nice sign at the club wishing me congratulations. It was incredibly sweet and just proved how the Pembroke community has adopted me into their curling world,” says Middaugh.
Algonquin College Outdoor Adventure Naturalist student Kelly Middaugh has been playing at the Pembroke Curling Club as she prepares to represent Team Quebec at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts.
Middaugh’s mother has participated in the Scotties Tournament of Hearts on several occasions, while her father, Wayne Middaugh is a legend in men’s curling, having won three world championships while holding the distinction of winning those titles while playing three different positions. That’s unheard of at that level of play, but it’s not surprising. In this family, a challenge is always welcome.
Middaugh’s younger sister, Emily, is also really good at the game. She is part of a U21 Ontario team and recently won the Junior Curling Cup and will represent Canada at an international tournament later this year in Switzerland.
“My younger sister Emily, and I tried out other sports to find our own niche, but the curling community was always such a fun and safe place that it was almost impossible to not try and follow in my parents’ footsteps,” says Middaugh.
Before enrolling at Algonquin, Middaugh attended Wilfrid Laurier University where she earned an Undergraduate Degree in Global Studies. While attending university, she competed three times for a national intercollegiate university curling title, but when she was away from a curling rink, her passion was the outdoors.
“The Outdoor Adventure Naturalist program seemed right up my alley. Throughout my time at Laurier and in high school, I worked at a Wildlife Centre in my hometown and a forest school in Etobicoke and I loved the type of work I was doing,” says Middaugh who enrolled in the program last September.
The end goal is to work as an outdoor educator. She set out to college with an aim to learn more about identifying wildlife and improving her canoeing skills, but the program has taught her much more about working in the outdoors. Her eyes have been opened to many opportunities that she had not thought about previously, such as starting her own business.
“I’m not entirely sure where yet but I definitely want to work outside of the city. I loved what I did at the Wildlife Centre so if I could find something similar to that or even start my own company that would also be fun,” says Middaugh.
Team Quebec Left to Right: Laurie St-Georges (skip), Emily Riley (vice), Alanna Routledge (second), Kelly Middaugh (lead), Emilie Desjardins (fifth), Michel St-Georges (coach)
For the next few weeks Middaugh’s focus will be on school and curling. At the Pembroke Curling Club and at Algonquin College’s Pembroke Campus there will be a lot of interest in how Team Quebec is fairing at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts when the competition opens on February 17th. In particular, they will be watching the team’s lead, Kelly Middaugh, who has already won their hearts, no matter how the team does in British Columbia.
Given the family genes, it likely won’t be the last time Middaugh competes at a national championship. For now, she’ll continue to slide rocks down the ice of the historic Pembroke Curling Club, a place that will forever be part of her memory bank as she explores a new career in adventure tourism while continuing to play the game she loves.
Posted by Jamie Bramburger, Manager of Community and Student Affairs at Algonquin College’s Pembroke Waterfront Campus.