Kerry Galusha is perfectly content with her current connection to the granite game.
The 48-year-old represented Northwest Territories at an incredible 22 Scotties Tournament of Hearts over her long career, playing in her final national championship last year in Thunder Bay alongside daughter, Sydney.
Now retired from competitive play, Galusha has turned her attention to coaching the next generation of curlers coming out of the North. Galusha is coaching three different teams this season, including the rink representing Northwest Territories at this year’s Tournament of Hearts in Mississauga.
“It’s been very busy. I have not thrown one rock. I have not even slid. I got in the hack the other day with my junior team at practice and they were all like ‘Oh my God, Kerry’s getting in the hack!’” Galusha told TSN.ca earlier this week at the Paramount Fine Foods Centre.
“I’m actually really retired and I don’t even really miss it. I’ve really embraced the coaching role and it’s been really fun.”
Nicky Kaufman, 40, is skipping Northwest Territories this week in her first career Scotties. The rest of the rink is rounded out by third Megan Koehler, competing in her seventh Scotties, as well as the teenaged front-end duo of second Sydney Galusha, 16, and Ella Skauge, 17. Both are competing in their second Scotties after posting an impressive 3-5 record with Kerry Galusha last season.
Brynn Chorostkowski, 16, is the alternate on the squad.
“I like that I can be in control of a team,” said Galusha. “I was always the organizer on my past ladies’ teams and this time it’s a similar role. I’m just a little bit more in control and kind of doing it all.”
Maintaining competitive teams up north is no easy task. Expenses and time associated with travelling to various high-level bonspiels outside of Northwest Territories is one obvious hurdle curlers living in places like Yellowknife have dealt with over the years.
Losing strong junior curlers to secondary schooling is another factor, adds Galusha.
“Ella Skauge is going to go to school next year. I don’t know if she’ll curl out of the North. Then Brynn and Sydney, they’re going to graduate next year. We’ll probably lose them for a few years,” explained Galusha. “We have a good team in Hay River right now and a decent team in Inuvik, but they’re also very young and they’re off to school. So that’s the problem with the North. We lose kids to the universities and colleges down south. Sometimes they come back and sometimes they don’t.”
Galusha and her brother Jamie Koe, who’s played in 18 Montana’s Briers, returned to Northwest Territories to curl on the national stage. Meanwhile, Kerry’s older brother Kevin Koe, remained in Calgary and proceeded to win four Brier Tankards in addition to two World Men’s Curling Championships.
Galusha, who works for the Department of Justice in the Northwest Territories, doesn’t know what the future will hold for the current crop of young curlers in the territory.
“I don’t know what the girls will decide. They can always go pro out of the North, but I don’t know if that’s something they would do. I know Sydney is excited to maybe join an Alberta team when she goes to school. We might see it decline a bit,” said Galusha.
Northwest Territories was 1-1, highlighted by a 10-5 win over Yukon, through Sunday’s action at the Mississauga Scotties.
Following the Scotties, Galusha will get set to coach Skauge and her daughter at the Canadian Under-20 Championship from March 28-April 5 in Sudbury.
Skipped by Galusha, they went 1-7 at last year’s event in Summerside, PEI.
‘Experience it through her eyes’
Scharf: I get really nervous still Northern Ontario skip Krista Scharf is set to compete in her 13th career Scotties, looking to return to the playoffs for the first time since 2023. Scharf chats with Bob Weeks about the nerves she still feels playing in the event and bringing her 16-year-old daughter, Bella, along this year.
Like Galusha, veteran Northern Ontario skip Krista Scharf is teaming up with her teenaged daughter at this year’s Canadian women’s curling championship.
Scharf, who’s competing in her 13th career Scotties in Mississauga, has her 16-year-old daughter, Bella McCarville, on the squad this year as an alternate.
“It’s just nice to have her experience it and I get to experience it through her eyes for the first time. It’s something nice to get to do together as a family,” said Scharf.
McCarville, who’s a Grade 11 student at St. Patrick High School in Thunder Bay, has competed at three previous Canadian Under-18 Curling Championships and one Canadian Under-20 Championship.
“I want to get her some experience being out here and I hope she will be here one day curling, and she can say that I’ve been here and know what to expect a little bit,” explained Scharf.
Team Scharf, rounded out by longtime teammates in third Ashley Sippala, second Kendra Lilly, lead Sarah Potts and coach Rick Lang, have missed the playoffs at the past two Tournament of Hearts, posting identical 4-4 records.
They started last year’s tournament in their hometown of Thunder Bay with four straight losses, putting them in an early hole they couldn’t climb out of.
Scharf, who owns two silver and two bronze medals at the Scotties, is motivated to turn things around in Mississauga, knowing she doesn’t have too many more kicks at the can.
“We know that our time is coming to an end soon. I’m older and I’ve been doing this since I was 14. I’ve been going crazy hard since I was 14 years old,” said the 43-year-old. “You get to the point where you get like, what more could I do to get to a better level? So, we know that this might be coming to an end and we just want to try our hardest.”
Team Scharf returned to a foursome in 2025-26 after attempting to get over the hump with a five-player unit the past two seasons alongside New Brunswick import Andrea Crawford.
“It worked at times, but it was also tough at times. Who’s playing and what games are they playing? And then if we get to the playoffs, who’s playing? Things like that,” Scharf continued. “Those type of things were difficult. We’d hoped to do better with Andrea. We got along really well. She’s a great curler. Just, didn’t happen our way. So, we said, let’s go back to our four-man team for a year and see what happens.”
So far, so good for Team Scharf.
They’ve won their first two games in Mississauga and take on Alberta’s Team Selena Sturmay on Sunday night.
