After representing the Yukon at two straight Scotties, Team Koltun will be slowing it down this coming season.

The northern curling rink, led by stalwarts Sarah Koltun and Chelsea Duncan, is looking ahead to a more relaxed season than usual this winter, coach Lindsay Moldowan told the Star yesterday.

“We’ve been going pretty hard at it for nine seasons now and as a result school and personal lives have been put on the backburner,” Moldowan said. “We’re going to use this season to focus more on these personal things.”

The team finished 2-9 at the 2014 Scotties Tournament of Hearts before being ousted in the relegation round at the 2015 event in Moose Jaw, Sask., with a slightly rejigged roster.

Next winter, the team of Koltun, Chelsea Duncan, Patty Wallingham and Jenna Duncan will likely only compete at one spiel before Christmas.

It is not yet known whether they will compete in the Yukon playdowns for a berth at the 2016 Scotties in Grande Prairie, Alta.

“We would like to enter into playdowns, but I think that we need to assess that further into the season,” Moldowan said.

“The girls are just at a point where they need to focus on their studies more.”

After taking a year off of school in 2014 to focus on curling, Koltun is now entering her fourth year of university at Trinity Western.

The 21-year-old skip said she considered taking the year off and letting her team go on without her, but that idea was nixed quickly.

“I need to catch up on my school a bit, and the other girls felt like they might as well do the same. We can still play in a relaxed setting and come back stronger later,” Koltun said.

The team’s early exit from the Scotties due to the new relegation round format did not factor into their decision, Moldowan added.

“The plan is to relax a bit, focus on other things, recharge, and then the year after next go at it full tilt again,” she said.

“We all agree that we don’t want to play with anybody else. We love this team, but it just didn’t make much sense to go at it full tilt again and end up feeling frustrated with not having any time to commit fully to curling or school.”

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Meanwhile, Thomas Scoffin’s championship CIS rink will remain together as a full-time team next season, it was announced last month.

The Whitehorse skip will stick with the Edmonton-based team that helped him win his first national title in Waterloo, Ont., last season.

The lineup of third Evan Asmussen, second Jason Ginter and lead Andrew O’Dell curled together only for the CIS playdowns, as Scoffin was completing his final season of junior eligibility with a different rink.

“We had an incredible championship run in Waterloo and we have decided to keep the squad together moving forward into next season,” said Scoffin, a former bronze medallist at the Winter Youth Olympics.

“I can’t wait to compete with these boys in my first year on the men’s circuit. ... We certainly have some high expectations.”