Kerri Einarson to leave curling team at the end of the season

After five years curling with the same team, Kerri Einarson has decided to form a new foursome.

The skip will be leaving her East St. Paul-based rink at the end of the season. Einarson plans to announce her new team later this week. She told Global News two of the members currently curl out of Manitoba while the third is from Alberta.

“I had a few opportunities come my way so I thought about taking up those opportunities and changing it up,” Einarson said.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "I had a few opportunities come my way so I thought about taking up those opportunities and changing it up," Einarson said.

“People might be a little shocked at first but I think it’s going to be a really good opportunity.”

Team Einarson has curled in two of the last three national Scotties. It lost in the final at this year’s Canadian women’s championship after qualifying through the wildcard game. The rink won the provincial title in 2016 en route to a fourth place finish at the Scotties.

Third Selena Kaatz, second Liz Fyfe and lead Kristin MacCuish plan to continue playing together but with a new skip.

“We definitely had our ups and downs,” Einarson said. “We had an amazing run at the Scotties and a pretty decent year. It was pretty hard but I think a change was in need for all of us.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "We definitely had our ups and downs," Einarson said. "We had an amazing run at the Scotties and a pretty decent year. It was pretty hard but I think a change was in need for all of us."

The team will participate in two Grand Slam of Curling events next month before splitting up.