Meadow Lake’s Dayna Demmans is living proof the biggest dreams can still come true. This past weekend, Demmans (lead), along with fellow Team Campbell curlers Jolene Campbell (skip), Robyn Silvernagle (third) and Rachel Big Eagle (second), qualified for the upcoming 2026 Scotties Tournament of Hearts after winning gold at the Bungee Prairie Pinnacle provincial championships held in Melville.
“It was a pretty solid week in general, through round-robin and then landing in a good spot in a 1-2 game after round-robin,” Demmans told Northern Pride. “We kind of just cranked it up a notch in playoffs, coming out solid in both the 1-2 game and the final Sunday (Jan. 11). Our goal was to be in that provincial final again. We were in it last year and wanted to be back there again this year, flip the script and be the winning team this year. You never know how those provincial weeks will go. There was a lot of pressure, you never know which teams will perform better or worse under pressure, but we did everything we could to prepare ourselves.”
The provincial event ran from Jan. 5-11 with Team Campbell finishing with the second-best record through round-robin play before handing Ashley Thevenot her first loss of the bonspiel in the 1-2 playoff game Saturday to earn a berth to Sunday’s championship. Team Campbell ultimately knocked off Team Tisdale 4-3 in the final. Demmans was also recognized as Player of the Game following that particular contest. “Honestly, I felt very calm and focused in the final,” Demmans said. “I was in a really good place, I was ready, which definitely felt different than last year. I was just focusing on one shot at a time. I knew I was playing decent, but I didn’t realize I was playing that much better than everyone else. After the game, that was a nice surprise.” And, while her teammates have all had experience at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts as members of other squads throughout the years, Demmans has never appeared in a Scotties before. “It feels like a bit of a dream right now,” Demmans said. “We got sized up for the green jackets last night, and we fly out in eight days. It’s going to be a quick turnaround. We’ll be practicing and getting ready for that, but I’m just excited to be able to play at the big event. It’s been a dream I have had since I was a teenager. Truthfully, after last year’s final, I remember saying to my partner I didn’t know if I would ever make it to the Scotties. I thought I was going to be one of those athletes who never makes it, and I was OK with that. To actually make it this year and to have that feeling of all that work paying off – it’s essentially been two decades of work – it feels really good.”
The 2026 Scotties Tournament of Hearts is slated to run from Jan. 23 to Feb. 1 in Mississauga, ON, and Demmans said she wouldn’t want to have anyone else at her side. “We’ve all been friends for so long,” she said. “I played with Jolene multiple times over the years, I’ve also played with Robyn a lot and Rachel the last couple of years. We are fairly wide open when it comes to saying what we need to say to make each other better, and to do what we need to do to be the best teammates to each other. That friendship we have both on and off the ice makes it fun. That was one of our goals this season, to have fun. You tend to play a lot looser when you’re laughing out there and having fun.”