Jones team just ordinary superstars in Winkler

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 24/01/2015 (4241 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

WINKLER — Even when Jennifer Jones isn’t calling the shots, the fact of her still hangs over these 2015 Manitoba Scotties, lighting them up.

You can see it in the size of the crowds, and in how they move around Winkler Arena to get the best view of her games. You can see it in the way young fans line up around the rink, hoping to snag autographs from an Olympic champion and her team. You can see it when even Jones’s opponents are just thrilled to get this close.

On Thursday morning, Snow Lake skip Kelly Wiwcharuk and her team asked the Jones foursome to snap a group photo.

The Olympic gold medallists, who had just cruised past Wiwcharuk 10-1, happily obliged.

“We were pretty star-struck in the beginning, we were like ‘Oh my God, we’re curling Jennifer Jones,” Wiwcharuk said, and laughed. “We thought, OK, we should do our hair so at least we’re gonna look good out there. We were looking at it as just an experience.”

This is the thing about curling. If Sochi cemented Jones’ place as the sport’s biggest star, then these Scotties remind that her game still belongs to the prairies. There aren’t many sports where you’d get to watch the world’s top players set up shop for a week, in a cozy southern Manitoba city like Winkler.

“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” said Verna Krahn, who brought her daughter Rayna, 12, to see Jones play on Friday afternoon.

After the game, Rayna and friends Hope Friesen and Emily Kehler flocked to the side of the rink, hoping for a chance to meet their idols. And they did, as the Jones foursome signed the girls’ curling jackets, and called them close for a beaming group photo. “It meant a lot, because I like watching her on TV,” said Friesen, who started curling two years ago.

Scenes like this are, not to be too cliché about it, music to host committee co-chair Louis Tanguay’s ears. Before Jones, third Kaitlyn Lawes, second Jill Officer and lead Dawn McEwen confirmed they’d keep rolling this season, Manitoba Scotties organizers wondered which teams would be the headliners, the faces to put on the posters.

The 2014 Manitoba champion Chelsea Carey rink, of course, had disbanded — though Carey third Kristy McDonald is here with her own foursome.

Winnipeg Free Press | Newsletter

Mike McIntyre | On Sports

Thursdays

Keep up to date on sports with Mike McIntyre's weekly newsletter.

Sign up for Mike McIntyre | On Sports

Sign Up

I consent to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies.

I consent to CASL agreement.

Now, with the round robin almost finished, the Winkler hosts couldn’t be more pleased with the field they got.

Consider how just after noon on Friday, the south stands of Winkler Arena were packed to their 500-person max; that was the side closest to where Jones was playing Fort Rouge’s Darcy Robertson.

The north stands, though still bustling, were decidedly less jammed, which has been a recurring theme this week: Where Jones is curling, the crowds follow in droves.

With Jones in the top spot, ticket sales quickly surpassed expectations. By early afternoon on Friday, the arena was virtually sold out for the evening draws, and only a handful of tickets were expected to be available today. Organizers also sold more weekend passes than they were expecting, and Tanguay guessed that, too, was part of the Jones effect. “It has been outstanding,” he said. “We’re thrilled, and the weather’s cooperated so we’re just tickled pink.”

melissa.martin@freepress.mb.ca

Melissa Martin
Reporter-at-large

Melissa Martin reports and opines for the Winnipeg Free Press.

Every piece of reporting Melissa produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.