2024/2025 - Team Bakker is Back!

After a short hiatus, Team Bakker is back in business and ready to compete!

Ryleigh took a break from competitive curling from 2022-2024 to finish the professional education requirements for her Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA) designation. See more details on what she’s been up to here: 2022-2024 Update

Team Bakker will be competing this year in multiple events and entering into Alberta Women’s Playdowns with the ultimate goal of qualifying for the 2025 Alberta Scotties. To learn more about our 2024/2025 line up, visit our Meet the Team page.

Thank you following along on our journey and we are so excited to share our upcoming season with you!

Ryleigh, Stephanie, Sara, and Renee

2021/2022 Season

Another season is complete! See our 2021/2022 season recap here: 2021/2022 Season

A special thank you to our 2021/2022 season sponsors:

• A Buyer's Choice Home Inspections North East Calgary with Paul Bakker

• Adventure Destinations International

• Runback

• Calibre Coatings Ltd.

• Xtreme Oilfield Technology

• Burrows Law

• Giroux Financial Services

• Curlers Corner *Your One Stop Curling Shop* Calgary Alberta Canada

• Dentistry at Market Mall

• Apple Drugs

• Kalos

• Kotowich Evergreen Farms

• Okotoks Shoppers Drug Mart

• Springbank

• Fish Creek Nissan

• Springbank Self Storage & RV’s

• Shajani LLP Charted Professional Accountants

• Triple P Farms

CTV Reports: Ryleigh Bakker is an Inspired Albertan

Our skip was honoured to be featured on CTV’s Inspired Albertan series.

The spirit of the series is conveyed by the following message from series host, Darrel Janz (D. Janz, n.d., Inspired, CTV News Calgary, CTV News Calgary | Inspired):

“All of us need someone in our lives who inspires us. I've been fortunate to have a lot of people who have inspired me in my journey.

Now, I want to tell the stories of people who have inspired you. Tell me why someone deserves to have their story told.”

See the coverage here:

Inspired Albertan Ryleigh Bakker

For the Love of Curling Scholarship Recipients Announced!

It was announced today that our fearless skipper, Ryleigh Bakker, has been selected as a recipient for the For the Love of Curling Scholarship presented by Curling Canada. This scholarship is awarded to 11 student athletes across Canada who have shown continued commitment and excellence in curling, academics, and community involvement.

Congratulations, Ryleigh!

See the announcement here: Curling Canada Announces Recipients of the 2021 For the Love of Curling Scholarship Program

2021/2022 Season Line Up

As the world experiences optimism about a ‘post-COVID’ future, we are so excited to concurrently announce our lineup for the 2021/2022 season! We recognize that this upcoming season will bring unique, unexpected challenges, and we are ready to meet these trials with resilience and commitment to our values and goals. We have been hard at work off the ice, and look forward to getting back to the rink in the fall!

Skip: Ryleigh Bakker

Third: Madison Johnson

Second: Kaitlyn Zeiler

Lead: Cameron Kuzma

Fifth: Sydney Libbus

Coach: Allison Earl

Check out our full team bios here!

2020/2021 Season Reflection

Curling looked a little different this year. Well, a lot different actually.

With the COVID-19 pandemic unfolding in March of 2020, almost everything changed for everyone – beyond the rink, we sincerely hope that you and your loved ones have been able to stay safe and healthy through these troubled times. Our hearts and love go out to all those who have suffered such keen losses as a result of the global situation. We have been reminded that for as much as we love our sport, ultimately, it is people and community who make curling and life everything that it is.

Our first thank you this year is to the awe-inspiring front line workers who have risked so much to protect our lives and safety. Writing this in the summer of 2021, we recognize that it is your courageous, tireless effort that makes it possible to consider returning to our lives, and to our sport. Thank you.

We are deeply grateful to our sponsors. In a time where businesses have suffered unprecedented strife, you chose to support our team and our development. This choice is recognized and honoured – thank you for empowering our growth as athletes and people. We thank our coach, parents, friends, and wider community for your support. You truly make the difference.

For Team Bakker, the pandemic brought many unique challenges. Although a few events went forward in the fall, we were shut down in the middle of November for the majority of the remaining season. As the saying goes, necessity is the mother of invention – and given the situation created by the pandemic, we were inspired to innovate and find new ways to develop and grow as athletes.

We actively engaged in fitness training and testing, sports mental performance training, communication education, team systems development, and strategy sessions. Our team bonded through online calls and games, finding joy and comfort in our relationships with one another. We reflected on the lessons of the pandemic and made plans to capitalize on curling opportunities, should they open up.

We are incredibly grateful for our on-ice competitions in the fall, placing as semi-finalists at the Okotoks U20 Spiel and finalists at the Leduc U20 Spiel. We were honoured to be invited as the sole junior team to the Okotoks WCT Event, and had been scheduled to play both Jennifer Jones and Rachel Homan. Unfortunately, the province of Alberta shut down on after the Friday evening draw, and thus we were unable to finish the weekend. In the early spring, we had the opportunity to be back on the ice at the Okotoks Curling Club – a reminder to maximize every moment of ice time to further team development and success. We are thankful for our continued involvement as Curling Alberta Excel Team Program athletes and for Curling Alberta’s tireless work to provide opportunities for learning and growth.

We are looking forward with optimism and strength. Our experience this season continually taught us the importance of resilience and adaptability. We are excited for the adventures of the fall, as we work towards our ultimate maximum as athletes and teammates. We are so grateful to be on this journey with you.

2020/2021 Sponsorship Announcement

We are excited to announce our sponsors for the 2020/2021 Season! Thank you for your generous support. We are grateful to represent you on and off the ice.

• A Buyer’s Choice Home Inspections

• Dentistry at Market Mall

• Springbank Self Storage & RV’s

• Calibre Coatings Ltd.

• Kubota

• Kalos Chartered Professional Accountants

• Xtreme Oilfield Technology

• Fish Creek Nissan

• Shajani Chartered Professional Accountants

• Okotoks Shoppers Drug Mart

• Mistol Seeds

Meet the 2020/2021 Team

We are thrilled to introduce you to our 2020/2021 line up!

We have Ryleigh Bakker skipping, Kaitlyn Zeiler playing third, Lisa Parent playing second, Cameron Kuzma playing lead, and Allison Earl coaching. We are already getting to work with off-ice training, including fitness, team meetings, and mental performance training. We can’t wait to put our work into action!

2019/2020 Season

And just like that, the 2019/2020 Season is in the books!

Thank you to our season sponsors, our coach Jack Moss, our families and friends, our home rinks of the Glencoe and the Calgary Curling Club, and the entire curling community for making this year one to remember. We are so grateful for your support and feel extraordinarily lucky to get to play the sport that we love at such a competitive level.

This season, we competed all over Alberta and out of province. We qualified for playoffs in every Tour event in which we competed, including notable finishes at the inaugural Curling Alberta Excel Cup (Gold), Michael Izsak Memorial Spiel (Gold), and Leduc Lions Junior Bonspiel (Silver). We competed out of province, including a quarter-final finish at the North Battleford (SASK) Big Sky Junior Slam and a Silver performance at the Vernon (BC) Rick Cotter Memorial Junior Women’s Classic.

Our strong Tour performance earned us the Direct Berth to the U21 Alberta Provincial Championship. We earned this right as a result of our first place performance on the Curling Alberta Excel Points Race. Although we were unable to secure the Gold Medal at Provincials this year, we are proud of our effort, and are hungry for more in this upcoming season.

At the conclusion of the season, we are ranked 2nd on both the Alberta Junior Curling Tour and Curling Alberta Excel Points Race, trailing only the season’s National Silver Medalists.

We are deeply grateful for the support we have received this season. Your support makes our dreams possible! We look forward to the future, where we will continue to honour and develop our relationships with you - our sponsors, our communities, our friends and families, and the wider curling family.

Thank you for the love, we will catch you soon!

Off-Season Update

Team Bakker has been working hard over the summer months to prepare for our much-anticipated start of season! We have been holding weekly meetings, meeting with our sports psychologist, working with our team fitness trainer, and participating in team bonding activities. Throughout the off-season, we kept a detailed fitness log where each team member (including Jack!) recorded our strength and conditioning training, as well as nutrition and energy levels. We’ve been working on goal setting, team dynamics, season planning, and strategy as we gear up for the start of season. As a team we’ve completed a locked room, gone climbing together, had a barbeque to meet and celebrate our families and friends, and continued to bond over shared activities. We are so grateful for all of the support we continue to receive. 

Four of our team members were volunteer instructors at the Alberta Rocks Summer Training Camp, and we spent time on the ice in mid-August. We held our first team practice at the Calgary Curling Club (CCC) and have been playing in Summer League on Tuesday nights at the CCC. We’ve been learning so much, preparing hard, and are incredibly excited to be entering our first spiel, the Curlers Corner Classic, tomorrow! Our first draw is 6:00PM at the Calgary Curling Club. You can follow along at CurlingZone for live line scores.  

Thank you to our sponsors, our families and friends, the Calgary Curling Club, and our fitness and mental performance support team. We recognize your positive impact; without your support, it would very difficult to prepare for and play our best curling. We honour our commitment to you and the community and we enter into our first event of the year.

Sponsorship Announcement

Thank you to our 2019/2020 Season Sponsors! We are grateful for your support and recognize your gracious contribution to our team’s development and success. We are proud to be supporting organizations with aligned values and we are excited to represent you as we compete this season. Thank you for your investment in our team, the community, and the sport of curling.  You make our dreams possible. 

BPIT Coaching and Consulting

Skrlik Farms

Sylogist

A Buyer’s Choice

Tier One Travel

Kalos

Dentistry at Market Mall

AFTI Watchdog

Steed Grading

Boucher Bros Lumber

Calibre Coatings

Barnett Orthodontics

A&W Cochrane

Grassroots Curling, Hardline IcePad, Runback

Meet the 2019/2020 Team

Say hello to Team Bakker’s lineup for the 2019/2020 Season!

At skip we have Ryleigh Bakker, playing third is Ashton Skrlik, playing second is Lisa Parent, playing lead is Julianna Mackenzie, and coaching this season is Jack Moss. Amongst the four players of our 2019/2020 Season lineup, collectively we have: competed at 22 Alberta Provincial Championships; played in 8 Alberta Provincial Finals; won 4 Alberta Provincial Championships; competed at 5 National Championships; and, won 1 National Bronze Medal. We are so excited to work as a team with shared values to achieve our ultimate goal of winning U21 Worlds as positive ambassadors. Stay tuned for more off-season updates!

Click here to see our full bios. :)

Thank You!

Thank you to our 2018/2019 Season Sponsors. We are so grateful for your support; our season would not have been possible without your generosity. The support of sponsors has given our team the opportunity to: finance sports mental performance training; fund hotels, travel costs, and team meals; invest in off-ice fitness training; participate in team building activities; fund bonspiel entrance fees; and, invest in team jackets and banners. Your funding makes it possible for our team to pursue unique development opportunities that give us a competitive edge throughout our season. We acknowledge and appreciate all that you do for our team, and the positive impact you have on our success and growth!

U18 Playdowns and Provincials

Our U18 season was truly an incredible experience. We have learned so much about our team and ourselves as players, and we are excited to carry these lessons into our futures as curlers. 

U18 Playdowns

Our U18 Playdowns journey started at the Calgary Curling Club. It was amazing to play a qualifying event in our home club, and we are so grateful for the experience. We won our berth for U18 Provincials and deeply appreciate the support from the Calgary Curling Club.

U18 PROVINCIALS

U18 Provincials were played at the Medicine Hat Curling Club. We narrowly missed qualifying for playoffs. Although it was not the outcome we wanted, we are so grateful for the lessons we have learned and the experience we have gained. We rebounded after our loss, and won the consolation round. We are proud to end the season on a strong performance in our final game.

THANK YOU…

Our team thanks our coach, sponsors, competitors, icemakers, umpires, and parents for making this season possible, and incredible. We are so lucky to have the opportunity to play the sport we love in a caring and supportive community. As we all move in separate directions for next season, we honour the time we shared together and will carry with us the memories and lessons of this season.

U21 Playdowns and Provincials

Our U21 experience involved success, change, growth, and learning!

U21 Playdowns

We started our U21 journey in Brooks at the U21 Southern playdowns. It took resilience and an all business mindset to qualify, but we emerged victorious, winning a berth to U21 Provincials!

New Teammate 

Shortly after qualifying for U21 Provincials, our teammate Hannah Airey made the decision to step away from curling for personal reasons. We wish her all the best, support her in her decision, and hope that our paths will cross again in the future. We asked Erica Watts to play with us for the remainder of the season, and she agreed. Erica has incredible experience and success with curling, and we are so excited to play with her for the remainder of our year!

 U21 Provincials

We played U21 Provincials in Okotoks with our new lineup. This has an incredible experience for us to grow as a team, as game pressure situations often yield new learning and development that is hard to replicate in practice!

 Looking ahead…

We will continue to put in hard work as we prepare for U18 Playdowns. Stay tuned for the update on our U18 Playdown experience.

Canada Winter Games Trials

The Canada Winter Games Trials was a valuable learning experience, with lessons we will take forward into the remainder of our season and our future career as curlers. We did not win the Trials, and this was a difficult outcome for our team. However, we evaluate our preparation and performance, with the ultimate goal of growth and development.

We worked hard throughout the summer with physical training, and prepared with focused practice and a well-prepared bonspiel schedule. We worked with a sports psychologist and held many team meetings to set goals and team values. We bonded as a team and fostered positive team culture.

We felt prepared for the Trials. We respect our opponents, and knew that it would be a fierce competition. It is impossible to control the outcome of events; we can only control our effort and attitude. Going forward, it is important to remember the valuable lessons we learned. This includes what we have learned about ourselves as players, and about the team as a whole.

We have events to play and goals to achieve this season. We will work hard to qualify for U18 Provincials, to ultimately achieve our goal of winning U18 Nationals. We will also strive to qualify for U21 Provincials to gain valuable knowledge and experience.

Our team considers the Trials a positive experience. We will proceed with the rest of the season with new knowledge and understanding, and emerge stronger than we were prior to the Trials. We are so excited to see what the rest of the season brings!

Banff/Canmore U18 Bonspiel

The U18 bonspiel in Banff/Canmore is always one of the highlights of our season. Who could ask for a more beautiful setting to play the game you love? Check out the team costumes for the Saturday games featuring 4 angels and 1 devil!  Thank you Banff and Canmore curling clubs for hosting a fun and highly competitive bonspiel.

We started off our weekend strong with a win Friday night as well as two wins on Saturday which placed us in first place in the championship round. Sunday morning we played an exciting semifinal game winning 7 to 4. We came up short in the final but were proud to place second out of twelve teams showing a solid team effort. We’ll continue to work hard in the next two weeks leading up to the Canada Winter Games Trials Nov 9-11. Thanks again to our great sponsors for their continued support!

Red Deer U21 Bonspiel

The October 12-14th weekend we played 5 games in the Red Deer Curling Club in our third U21 event of the season. It was a challenging weekend.  We persevered and learned some great lessons and send a big thank you to our wonderful guest coach Marilynne Earl!  Also, a big shout out to the Red Deer Curling Club for hosting a fantastic event!  We look forward to returning to Red Deer to play in the Canada Winter Games finals November 9th to 11th.

Michael Izsak Memorial Bonspiel - Lethbridge

Our second bonspiel of the season, the Michael Izsak Memorial Junior Bonspiel, was hosted by the Lethbridge Curling Club September 28-30.  We got off to a strong start going 3-0 in the round robin and making the championship round. We won our semi-final playoff game and ended up in 2nd place overall in this tremendous U21 event.  Thanks to our sponsors for the support this season and thank you to the Lethbridge Curling Club for hosting another great spiel!

Thank You To Our 2018-19 Sponsors!!

Thank you sponsors!  We deeply appreciate your funding.  Your support makes a critical difference in our pursuit of excellence and our dreams. With your support, we are able to pursue training and competition and meet the related costs that include bonspiel entries, accommodations, food and travel, ice rentals, mental training, fitness training, league fees, equipment and uniform/clothing costs. 

We are so incredibly thankful to our amazing sponsors for the 2018-2019 curling season who help to make this season possible.  Thank you - PBS Systems, Fountain Tire, Jas Electric, Midwest Surveys Inc, Petro Canada Lubricants, Out West Piping Design Ltd, A & M Potato Growers Ltd, D & L Chapman Farms and Drs Ziegenhagel and Associates. Your support is very much appreciated!