The 2025 Scottish Curling Championship will be held from February 14 to 23 at the Fort William Gardens in Thunder Bay, Ontario.

Thunder Bay - The 2025 Scotties Tournament of Hearts will be held February 14-23 at the Fort William Gardens in Thunder Bay, Ontario. 18 women's teams will compete in the national curling championship. Get to know the teams:

Team Canada

The defending champions, led by skip Rachel Homan, will face a tough challenge as the foursome from the Ottawa Curling Club - vice Tracy Fleury from Sudbury, second Emma Miskew, and lead Sarah Wilkes - just had a stellar season.

The world's top-ranked women's team posted an impressive 45-4 record, with two of those losses coming in their final game before the 2025 Scotties Tournament of Hearts.

Team Homan has won five tournament titles this season and had a 26-game winning streak before falling 7-4 to Isabella Rana in the last Grand Slam event of the year.

The four players have combined for 36 Scotties appearances, with Miskew leading the way at 11, one more than Homan, who missed the 2022 Scotties to compete in mixed doubles with John Morris at the Winter Olympics. Wilkes has made 8 national championship appearances, and Fleury has made 7, finally winning her first Scotties title last season.

Homan and Miskew have won four Scotties titles and two world championships, and earned silver medals at the national championship in 2019-21. The pair also represented Canada at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

Fleury made her first appearance at the national women's curling event by defeating Homan at the 2012 Ontario Scotties. Before joining Homan, Fleury curled in Northern Ontario. Fleury was also a runner-up at the 2021 Tim Hortons Canadian Curling Trials.

Wilkes has previously made seven Scotties appearances, including four straight from 2019 to 2022, winning the 2019 event with skip Chelsea Carey, defeating Team Homan 8-6 with a steal of two in an extra end. Wilkes served as vice on that team.

Wilkes has been a runner-up at the Scotties twice, once in 2015 as an alternate with skip Val Sweeting, and again in 2021 with Homan.

Homan's alternate is Rachel Brown, who has made seven Scotties appearances.  

Team Yukon

Bayly Scoffin will compete at the Scotties for the second consecutive time, but with a different lineup. Joining her are vice Raylyn Hulsdon (who played second in 2024), second Kerry Foster (moving down from third), and new lead Bailey Holt.

Kim Tuor, who played lead last year, will serve as the team's alternate, with Kevin Patterson as coach.

Scoffin, the sister of Thomas Scoffin of Team Montana-Brier fame, finished 1-7 at the 2024 Scotties, with her only win coming in an 11-4 victory over New Brunswick. She also finished 1-7 at the 2022 New Holland U21 Canadian Championship.

Scoffin also competed at the 2021 Canadian Mixed Doubles Championship with her father Wade Scoffin, and represented the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT) team with Hulsdon. Scoffin has also competed at the 2015 and 2023 Canada Winter Games; the 2020, 2022, and 2023 U21 national championships; and the 2023 Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association Championship.

Foster will make her fourth consecutive Scotties appearance, having previously played second with Hailey Birnie. She also competed at the 1996 New Holland U21 Canadian Championship and the 1995 Canada Winter Games.

Hulsdon was a silver medalist at the 2022 Canadian U18 Championship in Alberta, and finished third at the U21 national championship the same year. She was also the 2022 Canadian Junior Hearts winner and made the quarterfinals at the 2023 U21 national championship.

This will be Tuor's fifth Scotties appearance, and fourth consecutive, all as lead.  

Team Scoffin defended their Yukon title with a 3-1 win in a best-of-five series over Team Patty Wallingham, dropping the first game 6-5 at the Whitehorse Curling Club before winning 9-3, 9-5, and 7-4.

Team Nova Scotia

After a tough battle with Heather Smith in 2024, Christina Black went undefeated in the seven-team Nova Scotia championship to return to the Scotties.

Team Black, with vice Jill Brothers, second Jenn Baxter, and lead Karlee Everist, broke a tie with a three-ender in the seventh end to defeat Team Mackenzie Mitchell 6-4 and claim the provincial title.

Black has made five appearances, Brothers eight, and Baxter six, all at the national championship. Black's record at the Scotties is 31-22, having skipped in 2022 and 2023, and served as vice in 2018 and 2020. Her best finish was as vice for Mary-Anne Arsenault in 2018, when the team went 10-3. Baxter was the second on that team, which won bronze in Penticton, B.C.

Brothers will make her eighth Scotties appearance, and third consecutive, having played second for Andrea Kelly in 2023 in New Brunswick and thrown last rocks for Smith in 2024. She was a member of the 2004 New Holland U21 championship junior team and won silver at the world junior championship.

Everist, from Thunder Bay, will make her third Scotties appearance, all with Team Black. The foursome had some success in Kamloops in 2023, finishing the round robin at 5-3 to advance to a tiebreaker, where they stole an end to defeat the wild-card team of Kaitlyn Lawes.  

In the championship round, Team Black stole again to defeat Team Rachel Homan, but lost to Northern Ontario's Krista McCarville in the seeding game. Black then lost 9-4 to Team Canada's Kerri Einarson in the 3 vs. 4 page playoff, finishing fourth.

Marlee Powers is the team's alternate, and Stuart MacLean is the coach.

Team British Columbia

Corryn Brown makes her second consecutive Scotties appearance, having qualified as a wild card last season, but this time as the BC champion.

After finishing runner-up at the 2024 BC Scotties, Team Brown lived up to expectations this season, as the Kamloops-based team of vice Erin Pincott, new addition Sarah Koltun, and lead Sam Fisher defeated Kayla MacMillan 10-7 in the provincial final.

This will be Brown's fourth appearance at the national women's championship. She last won the BC title five years ago, then finished 6-6 at the 2020 Scotties. She returned in 2021 as the defending BC champion after the provincial championship was cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Brown won the 2013 New Holland Canadian U-21 Championship with teammates Pincott and Fisher, and Brown also won bronze at the 2012 Winter Youth Olympics.

Pincott has been with Brown for all three of her previous national women's championship appearances, and this will be Fisher's third Scotties.

Koltun joined the team this season from the disbanded Northwest Territories team of Kerry Galusha. This will be Koltun's tenth^appearance at the Scotties, and her fourth consecutive.

So far, the Brown team has a 36-25 record in the busy 2024-25 season, but started this year with an 0-5 record. They entered the Scottish Championship with a 14-2 record, went 8-1 in provincial play, and ended a six-game winning streak with a 7-4 loss to Selena Sturmay in the final of the Crestwood Platinum Anniversary Bonspiel in Edmonton before the provincial playoffs.

The team is coached by Jim Cotter, with Kristen Ryan as the alternate.

Source:  https://www.tbnewswatch.com/curling/scotties-2025-meet-the-teams-canada-yukon-nova-scotia-and-bc-10222183