An Officer and a gentleman

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 14/12/2017 (3156 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Jill Officer is joining forces with Winnipeg skip Reid Carruthers for another shot at Olympic glory.

Officer, who played second on Jennifer Jones’ gold-medal winning women’s curling team at the Sochi Winter Games in 2014, will replace Joanne Courtney at the Canadian Mixed Doubles Olympic Trials, which will be held in Portage la Prairie Jan. 3 to 7.

The winning team will represent Canada at the Pyeongchang Olympics in February.

Courtney, the second on Rachel Homan’s powerhouse Ottawa squad, recently punched her ticket for South Korea by winning the Roar of the Rings earlier this month in the nation’s capital. Jones’ team was eliminated from contention by Homan in the semifinal.

Carruthers, whose men’s squad missed the playoffs at the Roar, discussed the possibility of teaming up with Officer last summer.

“We both share the same sponsor in Princess Auto, and we were at a function and we were talking about the season,” Carruthers said.

“It was just through conversation it got brought up. (She said), ‘Do you have a backup plan in place?’ At the time, I didn’t, but she was obviously one of the people I thought about. It’s almost like we were both on the same page… It was one of those things that I hoped at some point would get brought up in conversation. It did. She brought it up, but I was thinking about it, and it worked out really well.”

The new team, which played together as a mixed doubles entity at the Continental Cup in Las Vegas in January, will have to get up to speed quickly.

“For us, we’re going to spend some time talking about what we need on the ice out of each other for success, because in mixed doubles you miss more shots than you would in men’s or women’s play,” he said. “So you’re going to miss shots and you’re going to need to know how to pick your teammate up — what to say, what not to say.”

Getting over the disappointment of Ottawa is crucial.

“You kind of go in a funk for a bit, because you’ve worked so hard for so long,” Carruthers said. “The sting I had after Winnipeg (at the 2013 trials, with Jeff Stoughton’s team) is a lot worse than the one I have now. We had a solid run in Ottawa, and you feel pretty good about how you played.

“Maybe it wasn’t meant to be for our team, but at the same time, we have trained hard and now I’m told I have a second chance to go to the Olympics.”

Carruthers and Courtney competed in five events as a mixed team, culminating with a silver medal at the 2017 worlds in Lethbridge, Alta.

His new teammate brings a very similar skill set, he said.

“Obviously, with having a front-ender who’s really good at sweeping, good ice reading, judging — the sweeping and management of the time clock is normally something Joanne normally would focus on,” Carruthers said.

“I would focus on where the broom goes, what we should be playing… the strategy end of things.

“With having Jill in play, I’m not going to have to do much of the ice reading because I have an Olympic gold medallist, who’s definitely one of the best at her craft.”

Kaitlyn Lawes and Mark Nichols are also expected to serve as replacement players in Portage la Prairie. Lawes, who plays third for Jones, will join John Morris at the trials, replacing Homan.

Nichols will replace Brent Laing on Jones’ tandem at the mixed trials. Nicholls plays third on the Brad Gushue team, while Laing is the second for Kevin Koe’s team representing Canada in Pyeongchang.

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @sawa14