The curling season has wrapped up for Team Crough, but not before establishing a foundation for next season.

The 2021-22 season might be described as a transitional year for the team. It was a year when they were both finalists in the national World Junior Qualifier final and qualified for the women's Alberta Scotties.

Cochrane's Julianna MacKenzie is lead. Her teammates are skip Elysa Crough, third Quinn Prodaniuk, and second Kim Bonneau, and they're coached by Mark Johnson.

The team is staying together next season and their goal is to represent Alberta in the Scotties Tournament of Hearts.

"We're going to have to work harder and practice even more than we did this season and put in a lot of effort. We're in the women's league now and we'll be playing those really hard teams all the time, but it's good to challenge ourselves."

"We're excited to look at what we've done this past season and look forward to what improvements we can make moving forward. We have a good base right now. We have some things we can improve on and work on, and we're not starting from ground zero."

She says they only competed as a junior team in provincials and nationals. The rest of the season was spent in women's play.

They finished their season last weekend in Leduc at the Boston Pizza Alberta Curling Tour Championship. It was an invitational event based upon points, where they qualified for playoffs.

She says the team is making inroads.

"Teams are starting to recognize us a little more now. We're not the junior team anymore, we're competitors to those older women's teams, which is nice."

During the summer, she'll be doing dryland training and taking a break from the sport. She has just signed up to play some recreational slo-pitch with friends for a change of pace.