Heather Nedohin takes a break from curling; Chelsea Carey takes over team

Chelsea Carey wasn't without a team for very long.

The 2014 Manitoba provincial champion, who left that province and formed a new team in Alberta last fall - then left that team last week -  will be taking over Heather Nedohin's rink next season. The announcement was made on the Team Carey Facebook page.

Rumours of Nedohin's decision to take a break from curling surfaced last week, and were met with neither a confirmation nor denial by her when she was asked about them over the weekend.

However, the 2012 Scotties champion confirmed her decision to step away from competitive curling earlier today.

Carey began this season at the helm of a team that included vice Laura Crocker, and front-enders Taylor McDonald and Jen Gates. However, her departure from that team was announced last week. That's when the rumours of her taking over Nedohin's team began to percolate.

“It’s going to seem strange for us going forward without Heather, and we’ll miss her very much but we completely understand and respect her decision,” said vice Amy Nixon, in a media release. Nixon, along with Nedohin, Jocelyn Peterman and Laine Peters, were defeated by Carey's rink in the semi-finals of this year's Alberta Scotties.

Said Carey, of Nedohin's decision to retreat from the grind of a competitive curling schedule and spend more time with her family:

"Her stepping back gives me a fantastic opportunity, and I’m excited about the chance to curl with three great players in Amy, Jocelyn and Laine. I know all of us are committed to putting in the time on and off the ice in order to be able to compete at the highest level of curling.”

“For 20 years I have had the privilege to compete at an elite level with amazing teammates with complete devotion to the pursuit of Canadian championships," said Nedohin, in the release. "As this team commits to this push towards qualifying for the 2018 Winter Olympics, I will be their biggest fan and cheerleader.”

Nedohin plans to play with her team at the season-ending Players' Championship, in Toronto, next month.

Nedohin is not the first pro level curler to decide to take a break from the rigours of the circuit. Nor will she be the last. The demands the sport makes on those who would compete at the elite level and gun for an Olympic berth are daunting, sometimes staggering. For some - as seems to be the case with Nedohin - those demands become too high a price and they decide to retire, or, as most curlers prefer to say when they're still in their prime (Nedohin is only 39 years old), to "step back." Last season, two-time Scotties champ Kelly Scott decided to ease her schedule, while contemplating outright retirement. Quebec's Jean-Michel Ménard and his teammates purposely play a light schedule, with the skip saying that if he is able to earn an Olympic Trials berth on his own terms, that's fine, but if not, so be it. In 2011, Glenn Howard's vice, Richard Hart, retired from curling, never thinking he'd return. However, he came out of retirement this season.

All of which is to say that Nedohin might well return to the high-wire of top level competitive curling one day.

In the meantime, her soon to be former teammates will be in very good hands in her absence, with proven skip and still rising star, Carey, at the controls.