A month after finishing one point out of the junior national curling playoffs, Team Koltun has plans to take its game to the next level.

After putting together its top finish in seven years at the national championship in February, the Yukon junior women's curling rink will compete on both the junior and women's circuits next season.

Twenty-year-old Sarah Koltun will skip both rinks, while fellow 20-year-old Patty Wallingham will also play for both teams.

Junior graduate Chelsea Duncan, 21, will play on the women's side, while her 17-year-old sister Jenna will continue to compete for the juniors.

The team is in the process of seeking a fourth player to play on both teams, and their recent success hasn't gone unnoticed. The Yukon rink has been approached by players willing to move to the territory to compete with the team next season.

Koltun will forego her third year of studies at Trinity Western University in Langley, B.C., in order to remain in the Yukon and focus on curling.

"It was definitely a hard decision, but this was an opportunity I didn't want to turn down,” Koltun said this week.

"School has always been a big part of my life, but curling has also been such a big passion of mine. The end is in sight and I have to go all in.”

Wallingham and Jenna Duncan will also remain in the territory to focus on curling together as a team.

Team Koltun coach Lindsay Moldowan said her team understands the opportunity at hand to take their game to the next level.

"We talked about losing the tiebreaker at nationals, and we sat down with our sports psychologist (Tracey Bilsky) and talked about what we felt we needed to kind of get to that next level,” Moldowan explained. "The big thing for the girls was just more time together and more time with me. From my point of view, them just being together is going to make a huge difference.”

In recent years, Koltun has studied in Langley and Chelsea Duncan has been in Edmonton at the University of Alberta. The miles between them meant the rink could only assemble on weekends to curl – often without the guidance of their coach.

Koltun said it took her rink too many games to get comfortable at the junior nationals in Fort McMurray, and it may have cost them.

"Our sights were set high at junior nationals this year, and we came up just short,” she said. "We were still kind of learning a bit. But once we remembered how to play together, the wins started rolling in.”

Seven straight appearances at the junior nationals gives Team Koltun a unique advantage of knowing the physical and emotional exhaustion that comes with a junior nationals.

"Their success at juniors this year really kind of opened their eyes to the fact that they're just as good as every other team out there, and that they really do have a good chance of making it,” Moldowan said.

"These girls are really great curlers and they've shown that to Canada. The fact that they're willing to put their studies on hold and only focus on curling so that they can really put the Yukon on the map at a national championship is just amazing to me.

It makes me super proud to be a part of what they're doing here because I think they really have an opportunity to put us on the map.”

Moldowan said once the team finds a fourth player, it will then come down to hoping the junior and national playdowns do not overlap next season.

By competing in both circuits, Team Koltun will have a shot at both the junior national crown and territorial representation at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts.

"The Yukon desperately needs a women's team to at least try and get there,” Moldowan said. "And they really want to go to the Scotties. The girls have been talking about it since they were 12 years old. Now that they're at the age to do both and they're committing to staying here to curl, there's no reason why they shouldn't, really.”

"I do believe we're ready for that next step,” added Koltun. "We do feel like women's curling needs a team from the Yukon and that we could be a strong contender.”

Canadian women's skip Rachel Homan's quick rise to fame is a model that Team Koltun will try to emulate.

"She's someone that the girls look up to for sure,” said Moldowan. "We're doing the same events she went too. She's someone that we can kind of look at and say, ‘She's there. There's no reason we can't be either.'”

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As for the junior men's rink in the Yukon, longtime stalwarts Mitch Young and Will Mahoney have both graduated from the junior ranks and are looking to compete with the men next season.

Young, Mahoney and coach Wade Scoffin will tentatively curl next season out of the Whitehorse Curling Club. They are currently looking for a fourth.

Mahoney said the rink's ultimate goal will be to take a shot at the Tim Hortons Brier.

"We'd have to beat Jamie Koe's N.W.T. team, but we'd like to get to the Brier,” the 21-year-old told the Star.

If the Yukon-based route doesn't work out, Mahoney said he would be open to offers from professional teams across the country.

The young curler said he has no regrets about his junior career in the Yukon, one that saw him rack up 29 wins over seven national appearances.

"It's amazing for any junior to get more than 10 wins ever at a nationals,” he said.

"We're going to be on the Extra End book for most wins and appearances for a while.”