Sweeping sisters

When sisters Blaine de Jager and Brette Richards started curling, Blaine was 10 years old and Brette was eight. Together, they threw their first rocks in the Prince George Golf and Curling Club's junior program.

With the passage of time and countless hours on the ice sheets, the local siblings have come a long way in their sport. Their curling journey has now taken them to St. Catharines, Ont., for the Scotties Tournament of Hearts national women's championship.

At the Scotties, which begins today with pre-qualification games, de Jager and Richards will play lead and second respectively for Team B.C., which is skipped by Marla Mallett and has Shannon Aleksic at third. The rink claimed the provincial title on Jan. 22 in Duncan thanks to a 6-3 final-game win against a team led by Diane Gushulak. Team B.C.'s quest for a Canadian championship will start with a Saturday game against Nova Scotia.

Both de Jager and Richards have previous experience at the women's nationals, de Jager in 2013 with Alberta and Richards in 2009 with Manitoba. But, this is the first time they'll play as teammates in the Scotties.

"It feels amazing," said the 35-year-old de Jager, who is living in Prince George again after a stint in Winnipeg. "It's a dream come true. I went in 2013 out of Alberta and, growing up as a kid and watching it on TV, I just hoped I could go maybe one time and now that I get to go twice it's amazing. And it's even more special because I get to go with my sister this time."

For de Jager and Richards, the Scotties dream was also fueled by Prince George's hosting of the event in 2000. Back then, they were 19 and 17 and were accomplished players at the junior level. One of de Jager's lasting memories of the 2000 tournament is an encounter with the legendary Colleen Jones, who, as the defending champion, was skipping Team Canada.

"We were talking to her and we were like, 'Wow, that's so cool!'" de Jager said. "(Jones) was like, 'Well, maybe we'll see you at one of these one day.' And actually she did play on Team Nova Scotia in 2013 so I did play her."

During the 2013 Scotties, held in Kingston, Ont., Team Alberta was skipped by Kristie Moore and had de Jager at third. It also featured Michelle Dykstra at second and Prince George's Amber Cheveldave at lead. The team represented the Grande Prairie Curling Club and finished last with a 1-10 record.

When Richards was at the 2009 Scotties in Victoria, she threw second stones for a Manitoba rink skipped by Barb Spencer. That team, out of the Fort Rouge Curling Club in Winnipeg, also ended up in last place (record of 2-9).

De Jager (for three years) and Richards (for 10) had both been living in Winnipeg until March of 2016, at which time they came back to their home province. De Jager opted for a return to P.G. while Richards decided to go further south, to Kelowna.

Looking to the 2016-17 curling season, de Jager contacted a Curl B.C. official to find some playing partners for herself and her sister. That led to a conversation with Abbotsford's Aleksic, who committed to the team in the summer.

With the skip position still vacant, Aleksic chatted with former coach Gerry Richard, who suggested Mallett - a three-time B.C. women's champion and a former Canadian and world junior champ. Mallett, from Langley's Walnut Grove area, hadn't played competitively since the 2013-14 season (her last big event was the 2014 B.C. Scotties in Prince George). But, after giving the matter some thought, she welcomed the chance to get back in the game.

Practices started in September in the Lower Mainland and, once the season began, the team - which secured Richard as coach - proved formidable. Thanks to their success at World Curling Tour events, Mallett and her mates finished as the top B.C. team in the Canadian Team Ranking System and earned an automatic berth in provincials.

At the B.C. championship, the Mallett foursome went 6-1 in round-robin play and then downed Lindsay Hudyma's Vancouver rink 6-1 in the first versus second playoff game. That win qualified them for the final, where they doubled up Gushulak.

"We knew going in we were (among) the top two or three teams there," de Jager said. "We felt pretty confident. We'd played pretty much everybody at least once this year and had fairly good success so we thought we had a chance to win, definitely."

At nationals, B.C.'s game against Nova Scotia (skipped by Mary Mattatall) will be its first of 11 round-robin contests. After round robin and tiebreakers, four teams will advance to the Page playoffs, which start Feb. 24.

"I would hope, of course, that we can play well enough to make the playoffs," de Jager said.

Chelsea Carey's Calgary-based rink is the defending champion and, as such, will play as Team Canada.

The Scotties winner will move on to worlds, March 18-26 in Beijing, China.

Since news broke that de Jager and Richards had made nationals as part of Team B.C., de Jager said she has received a ton of well-wishes from fellow Prince George residents and members of the curling community.

"It's great," she said. "It's just really nice to see the people supporting us after all these years and be so proud of us out of this club."

• When she was asked about picking up her curling broom after a two-year absence from the sport, Marla Mallett didn't rush into the decision. But, she's glad she accepted the invitation, especially now that she's about to compete in the Scotties Tournament of Hearts for the fourth time in her career.

With the national women's curling championship about to get underway in St. Catharines, Ont., Mallett is the skip of Team B.C. As part of her foursome, she has Blaine de Jager and Brette Richards, sisters who grew up in Prince George.

Mallett hadn't played since the end of the 2013-14 season, which, for her, wrapped up in P.G. at that year's provincial Scotties. She said she "really enjoyed having the two years off" and "needed the two years off" and had to weigh that against her willingness to put in the time and effort to play at a high level again.

"I wanted to make sure that I was going to do everything that I needed to do," Mallett said. "After a two-year hiatus there's a little bit more work to do to get yourself back into the swing of things."

All went smoothly for Mallett and her teammates (including Shannon Aleksic) and they rolled to the provincial title in January. Mallett now finds herself back at the national Scotties for the first time since 2009, the year she skipped a rink that lost to Jennifer Jones's Team Canada 8-5 in the final. Mallett's other appearances in nationals were in 1995 and 1997.

A main reason Mallett decided to play again this season was the fact she was being asked by "three very strong players." She has enjoyed the experience thus far, and that has included having sisters on her team for the first time in a 37-year career.

"They're great to play with and they're really good for one another," Mallett said in reference to de Jager and Richards. "They know exactly how they can talk to one another and what the other one needs so it's a huge benefit for us."

Mallett also appreciates de Jager and Richards for several other reasons.

"Both of them are very solid players," she said. "Technically, strategically, tactically, they bring a lot to the team. Me as the skip, they show me different things, things that I wouldn't normally do, and we've certainly played forward with their suggestions."