Heading to the mainland Thursday for the Vancouver Curling Club’s Ladies Totem Cashspiel, it’s just another weekend for Victoria’s Stephanie Jackson.

As with most athletes in the curling community, Jackson is relaxed, modest and easy to talk to, especially about curling.

For those not familiar with the 22-year-old Lambrick Park graduate, she’s in her second year with a competitive women’s curling team, trying to carve out a spot at provincials after an exceptional junior career. Jackson represented B.C. five times at junior nationals between 2001 and 2007.

And when Jackson joins her team at VCC on Friday she’ll step into her role as third on the newly formed Georgina Wheatcroft team. Wheatcroft (42) is the skip while Sarah Wark (22) of Langley throws second and Kristen Windsor (26) of Kamloops plays lead.

“The vision behind this team is that I have always been trained by similar people to Steph,” said Wheatcroft, who shared a similar path to Jackson having curled out of Victoria until 1995.

When the Pat Sanders rink won the world championship in 1987, Wheatcroft was the third and Jackson’s mom, Elaine Dagg-Jackson, spared as the fifth. Since then Dagg-Jackson has climbed the ranks as a national curling coach, a position she holds to this day.

“My whole family is curling,” says Jackson, who has curled since she learned to slide out of the hack at five years of age.

“I wanted to curl with Georgina, she has a ton of experience and I want to learn from her,” said Jackson. “Yet Georgina’s the kind of person who is still open to learning things.”

With the amount of experience Jackson has for her age she said it came down to putting a young team together or teaming up with a more experienced, accomplished curler such as Wheatcroft.

“I thought at this stage I can learn a lot more if I curl with Georgina than start a team myself,” said Jackson.

Not surprisingly, Wheatcrofts’ sentiments complement those of Jackson’s.

“My goal (moving ahead) was to mentor young B.C. players along. Especially players like (Jackson) who’ve had success in the junior ranks.”

The transition for Jackson has been a major one, jumping right into the thick of competitive women’s curling in Canada. In her final year of junior eligibility in 2007 Jackson’s mixed team and junior teams both won their respective provincials.

Barely out of her junior campaign in the same season, Jackson was picked up as the fifth with Wheatcroft and Law, who had joined forces again and advanced to the 2007 women’s nationals.

Jackson’s team has two purposes at this weekend’s Totem Cashspiel. Winning the cash would be nice, but it’s also a chance for the team to get familiar with the ice at VCC as it will be hosting the women’s Coastal Playdowns Dec. 6-8. A win at the playdowns means a spot in the provincials, Jan. 20-25 in Parksville.

sports@vicnews.com