From submarines to curling, Nova Scotia skip ready to lead team into battle at the 2024 Everest Canadian Curling Club Championships

What does managing complex defence projects and leading a curling team have in common? For Michelle Armstrong, the answer lies in strategy, teamwork, and a focus on the end goal.

Armstrong, a Projects Team Senior Manager with Babcock Canada, plays a critical role in supporting the Royal Canadian Navy’s Victoria-class submarines. Her work involves navigating the intricacies of national defence—a demanding yet fulfilling mission for the Halifax-based mother.

“It’s the best water cooler-talk job you could have. It’s a large engineering management company and we do a lot of cool things. Everybody wants to talk about working on submarines, asking questions like have you ever gone to sea? I’m not underwater, but I’ve been on the submarine many times. People have always found it interesting,” Armstrong said. “I also worked on the engineering side and worked mainly on the weapons systems on the boat. People are like, you have the coolest job title ever: Senior Weapons System Engineer. It’s always exciting and there’s never a dull day.”

This type of work fuels her leadership as skip for the Lakeshore Curling Club team from Sackville, N.S., competing this week at the 2024 Everest Canadian Curling Club Championships at the Barrie Curling Club in Ontario. Whether guiding her squad on the docks or in the rink, Armstrong believes success is about controlling what you can and making every action count.

“Working with defence-related contracts is challenging, but it’s hard work, dedication, and motivation,” she said. “I see a lot of that in curling, too. There’s an end goal, and you stay focused on that because it’s easy to get sidetracked by small frustrations. The question is: where do we need to be long-term, and how do we get there?”

Armstrong and her team—vice-skip Julie McEvoy, second Abby Miller, lead Kathleen Conrod, and alternate Mary Mason—are no strangers to this stage. They (except for McEvoy) last competed in the national championships in 2018, earning silver after falling short in the final to Armstrong’s former junior teammate, Morgan Muise of Alberta.

That loss doesn’t haunt Armstrong; life has kept her busy with family—husband TJ and children Anna and Alex—and a thriving career. But this year, she’s eager to aim higher, starting strong with an 8-4 win over Team Shannon Lachance of the Carmacks Curling Club in Yukon in their opening game.

Both men’s and women’s teams competed in one draw each on opening day. 

In addition to the Nova Scotia win on the women’s side, Newfoundland & Labrador’s Team Susan Curtis of Corner Brook, Quebec’s Team Gabrielle Lavoie of Quebec City, Prince Edward Island’s Team Amanda Power of Cornwall, Saskatchewan’s Team Samantha Yachiw-Omelian of Saskatoon and Manitoba’s Team Deb McCreanor of La Salle all earned a win to improve to 1-0.

In men’s action, Newfoundland & Labrador’s Team Randy Turpin (St. John’s), Saskatchewan’s Team Aaron Shutra (Saskatoon), Ontario’s Team Jordan Keon (Richmond Hill), British Columbia’s Team Jeff Guignard (Richmond), Alberta’s Team Rob Johnson (Irricana) and Nova Scotia’s Team Travis Stone (Sydney) all started the event with victories during the Monday evening draw.

Action resumes at the 2024 Everest Canadian Curling Club Championships on Tuesday with draws at 9 a.m., 12:30 p.m., 4 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. (All times ET).

Fourteen men’s teams and 14 women’s teams are competing this week. The fields are divided into two pools of seven teams. After the round robin, the top four teams in each pool will qualify for double-knockout playoffs, beginning Friday, Nov. 22, and concluding with the gold- and bronze-medal games on Sunday, Nov. 24.

Fans can follow the action live with selected games available on Curling Canada’s YouTube channel and TSN+. 

For live scores and standings, visit the scoreboard page.

For team lineups, draw times, and other event details, visit the event website.

This story will be available in French as soon as possible at: https://www.curling.ca/?lang=fr