For Jones, the firing was just business

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 10/05/2010 (5945 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OK, curling fans, let’s not beat around the bush here: In dumping longtime third Cathy Overton-Clapham, Jennifer Jones is going to be the villain. Full stop.

It doesn’t matter if Jones’ teammates, second Jill Officer and lead Dawn Askin, were fully on board with the decision. It doesn’t matter that men’s teams such as Jeff Stoughton and Kerry Burtnyk hire and fire players on a regular basis. Heck, it doesn’t even matter if it’s the right decision.

Why? Simple. It’s because Jones has a reputation as a stone-cold competitor, and axing the likable Overton-Clapham — the most decorated women’s curler in Manitoba history, we should mention — will only cement the perception in the minds of many fans that the reigning Team Canada skip would disown her grandmother to win.

“I don’t know if I necessarily agree with that, that I would do anything to succeed,” Jones said Friday. “It’s funny how people are portrayed in the media sometimes. Am I driven? Absolutely. Do I want to be successful? Absolutely. Do I love curling more than anything in the world? No.”

And that’s the thing about Jones, who was so driven to win a Scotties as a little girl that she grew up to win four of them. You half expect the answer to that last self-posed question to be, “Damn straight, I do.”

There’s a segment of curling fans in what can sometimes be a really catty sport who have long considered Jones rather ruthless. These may be many of the same people who disliked Colleen Jones, a six-time national champion, because of the way she chewed her gum. Really.

In fact, it seems any successful curler — at least, a successful woman — is almost always branded as arrogant and unfriendly. They’re dubbed ice queens, just like Connie Laliberte, who made the mistake of winning too much and smiling less. If memory serves, a lot of folks didn’t much care for that brash Sandra Schmirler, either. Until she got cancer and became a much beloved icon.

Then there’s the double standard built into the game’s DNA. Most changes on men’s teams are met with a shrug. It’s just business. But women? Perhaps it’s like that Seinfeld episode that demonstrates that all men like a good cat fight.

The only caveat in the case of Overton-Clapham is that she’s won more titles than anybody who voted her off the island. She was named all-star third at the Scotties in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. She had the highest shooting percentage of all thirds at the worlds last month in Swift Current.

She’s been to 11 Scotties, for Pete’s sake, and won five titles — four with Jones and one with Laliberte.

So this isn’t just another split. This is Martin leaving Lewis. That’s why people will take sides and Jones will come out the bad guy. The optics are made even less palatable given that Overton-Clapham’s dismissal means she won’t have the earned opportunity to compete in her 12th Scotties as a member of Jones’ Team Canada in 2011. That sucks.

Even Jones grudgingly acknowledges she will wear the black hat on this one.

“Probably. I don’t know,” she said. “That’s one thing I’ve learned: You can’t control how other people think. So you just have to move ahead and we’re very excited about the future, four years down the line from now.”

In fact, Jones mentioned “four years from now” about eight times in a 10-minute interview. In four years, with the end game being the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Russia, Overton-Clapham will be 44. Not exactly ancient by curling standards for one of the best at her position now.

But in 21-year-old Kaitlyn Lawes, Jones has recruited one of the top young curlers in the country. In fact, Lawes could be considered a younger version of, well, Cathy Overton-Clapham.

“These are always difficult decisions,” Jones said. “Unfortunately, with curling, the players make the changes, not a coach or a third party. But Jill, Dawn and I sat down and this is what we thought would be the best decision.

“It was the end of a four-year cycle. Now we have to look at the next four-year cycle. It’s about making a change and figuring out the best way forward four years from now. You have to be a visionary. You have to think ahead.

“There’s no question Cathy was a great player and a big part of our team,” the skip concluded. “There’s no question about that. We’re just looking four years from now.”

Regardless, the perception of Jones, at least among a lot of curling fans who felt she was too cutthroat in the first place, will only become more entrenched. Even if it wasn’t Jones’ decision alone. Even, as previously noted, if it proves to be the right decision long-term.

Is that fair? Hey, who said life was fair.

Just ask Overton-Clapham.

randy.turner@freepress.mb.ca