Jones’ road to the top starts in Rivers

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This article was published 28/01/2020 (2394 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

RIVERS — It’s been almost a year since that stunner in Cape Breton, the one where Jennifer Jones fell out of playoff contention at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts, shaking the competition like an oak tree falling in the forest.

For an observer, it was hard to know what to make of it: she’d qualified in all 13 of her previous visits to the women’s nationals, and of those, she’d won a record-tying six. Certainly, Jones had never been guaranteed to win, but it had long felt like a foregone conclusion that she would be there to battle near the end. 

At the time, Jones seemed to take it in stride. That’s the flip side of the career that she’s had: if you are great long enough, it also means you have enough time to fall, hard. It certainly didn’t dampen her fire: within days, she was talking about her vision for the next season, plotting how to get back to the top of the pack. 

Now, that road back starts here, in tiny Rivers, an unincorporated community about 30 minutes north of Brandon. It’s a cozy place, in the way great curling centres so often are: a few cafés, a gas station and an airy arena, pride of the community, which seats about 500 in this configuration. The first hotel here opened just two weeks ago. 

Jones loves it. She and third Kaitlyn Lawes spoke here once, she says, and the fans were amazing. Now, as she prepares to battle for the buffalo jacket, part of a 12-team field that’s easily the deepest Manitoba women’s curling has ever seen, the skip is gunning to give those fans a week to remember. 

“Last year was a tough year, on just a bunch of different levels,” she says, chatting after practice at Riverdale Community Centre on Tuesday. “We had a lot going on outside of the curling ice, so it was just more trying to get used to our new team (with second Jocelyn Peterman), and having fun, and we were OK with that.

“This year we really were like, we want to play better, and perform better, and so we’ve been working hard and really focusing on trying to be our best in a year and a half from now (at the Olympic trials). I feel like we’ve made a lot of great strides, and we’re feeling really good right now, so it’s fun to play in our provincial.”  

This year too has been a challenging one, off the ice more than on. In May, Jones lost her father, Larry Jones, who had been her first coach and most ardent lifelong supporter; just a month later, Manitoba curling legend and longtime former Team Jones coach Janet Arnott died of cancer. 

Those two had long been the pillars of Jones’ rise as a curler, the ones in her corner. Arnott, Jones says, had long been her “person on the ice,” the one she connected with the most. And Larry, well, anyone who saw him beaming from the stands at Jones’ big events knew what that bond meant, to father and daughter. 

“Loss is never easy, and to lose two people who had such an impact on my curling, the curling has been a little bit different this season,” she says. “But it’s also a place where I remember them most and feel closest to them. In that way it’s been really therapeutic, and really nice. And I know that they’re watching over us somewhere.”

Through it all, Team Jones has strung together a solid season. The usual highs and lows apply: they missed out on playoffs at the Canada Cup, but roared back just two weeks later to make the final of the Boost National grand slam. Earlier this month, they played well en route to a quarter-final finish at the Canadian Open. 

Put it all together, and Jones comes into the week in Rivers as the third seed and third-ranked team in Canada, behind fellow Manitobans Tracy Fleury and Kerri Einarson, who are also on this buffalo hunt. It’s the first time in who knows how long Jones hasn’t entered a provincial as the top seed. 

Not that it really matters, she agrees. Amongst this season’s “big three,” as their competitors call them, it’s essentially a coin flip, or a matter of who gets hot this week. It wasn’t long ago  the Manitoba field had Jones as the dominant No. 1, and all others hoping to unseat her: those days are gone. 

“That’s what makes it fun,” Jones says. “And there’s a ton of mutual respect amongst the players. It’s just hard that only one of us will get to represent Manitoba at the Scotties. I mean, there’s the wild-card game, but… We’ve all had decent seasons, and I know we all want to play there. 

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“It’s going to be a fun grind, and great for the fans. Whoever wins will be a great representative for Manitoba.” 

Those fans could well see a special matchup this week. Jones is not in Fleury’s round-robin pool, but barring major upset, the two will likely meet each other on the weekend. There’s also a familiar face behind the bench for Team Fleury: longtime former Jones second Jill Officer, who is here on coaching duties. 

It’s not as weird as you’d think to play against her old friend, Jones says; they did it earlier in the season when Officer filled in for Fleury second Liz Fyfe. Still, having Officer serving as Fleury’s coach seems dangerous: of all the players in the world, isn’t she the one that knows all of Jones’ secrets? 

“Not all of them,” Jones says, with a wink. “I’ve got a few hidden in there that I’ve never shared.”  

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.