From the media bench to the pebbled ice, Inglis thrilled to lead Ontario at first Scotties

CALGARY - Danielle Inglis is no stranger to the Scotties Tournament of Hearts.

The 35-year-old native of Whitby, Ont., has attended many national and international curling events over the years as Curling Canada’s social media and web content coordinator.

Inglis is back at this year’s Scotties in Calgary, but in a far different capacity. Inglis is skipping Team Ontario after winning her first provincial title last month.

“First and foremost, I’ve always been a competitor,” Inglis told TSN.ca on Saturday after her first career Scotties contest. “I love my job, but I love being on the ice even more. It’s a thrill to be out here. I know all the work that goes into these events. All the people behind the scenes who make the world turn here and it’s so fun to be on the other side.”

Team Inglis dropped their Tournament of Hearts opener on Saturday at Winsport Arena, falling to British Columbia’s Team Clancy Grandy, 9-4.  

The rink out of Ottawa Hunt and Golf Club shot a collective 72 per cent in the loss with Inglis throwing 71 per cent. Not the start they were looking for in a very difficult Pool B, but the skip says they were able to take some positives away from the loss.

“It’s so fun to be playing in front of a full crowd and a very knowledgeable crowd too,” said Inglis, who was an alternate for Team Rachel Homan at the 2021 bubble Scotties inside the same venue. “We were just having a good time trying to soak up every minute. It didn’t go our way, but we learned a lot on the ice today that we’re going to bring forward into the rest of the week ahead.”

Inglis and her rink of third Kira Brunton, second Calissa Daly and lead Cassandra de Groot are all Scotties rookies with Inglis and Brunton having some experience as alternates in the past.

Despite this being their first Canadian women’s curling championship, Team Inglis has bigger goals than just being happy to be at a Scotties. The foursome is ranked sixth in Canada after playing in nearly 60 games during the Tour season where they qualified in eight of 11 events and won three times.

The Ontario Scotties were wide open this year after Team Homan pre-qualified for the national championship via their strong ranking from the 2022-23 season. Inglis defeated Carly Howard in the provincial final after coming up short a handful of times in previous years, highlighted by a final loss in 2018.

Inglis believes her squad can give the top contenders a run for their money in Calgary and want to be in the mix for the playoffs.

“We know that we can be here, and we can play with all the teams here. So we’re just trying to balance that out, balance our expectations as well,” she said. “Our goal is to be there in the playoffs, and I know we can the way we’ve been playing this season.”

Finishing in the top three out of Pool B and reaching the playoffs will be no easy task for Team Inglis as the it features the top two seeds in the country in provincial rival Team Homan and Manitoba’s Team Jennifer Jones, the six-time Canadian champ who is playing in her final Scotties.

Keeping things in stride will by key for Team Inglis this week, says the skip.

“Our team has fun is what I like to say. Both on and off the ice. We’re best at our loosest. We’re competitors. We’re there to support each other the whole time too which is really important to all of us,” said Inglis. “Truly, I’m very excited that we’re getting a chance to be on this stage because I know we’ve all worked so hard to be here and I hope this isn’t the last you see of us.”

Inglis and company will look to avoid dropping to 0-2 on Sunday morning when they take on Team Homan.

You can watch that game at 10:30am ET/7:30am PT on TSN 1/3 and streaming on TSN.ca and the TSN App.

Inglis also won double gold at the 2018 Canadian and World Mixed Curling Championships. 

Round robin play continues through Thursday with the final set for Sunday evening