Growing the future of women’s curling

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This article was published 18/12/2020 (2078 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Kerri Einarson has a couple of young curlers on her team and she’s deeply invested in not only their future in the sport but also the increasing role of females of all ages in the game’s growth and development.

Indeed, daughters Khloe and Kamryn are key members of Team Einarson, the home version. (You were likely thinking twentysomething front-enders Briane Meilleur and Shannon Birchard on Kerri’s brilliant women’s squad.)

Kerri and Kyle Einarson’s seven-year-old twins started sliding little rocks at the Gimli Curling Club when they were toddlers and are now to a point where they’re coming out of the hack with a stable delivery and hitting the house with regularity. 

The reigning Scotties national champion hopes the girls are in the early stages of a lasting affection for curling, one fostered by positive female role models: players, coaches, rules officials and volunteers.

“It’s amazing to see my girls loving the sport. It’s really important for the future of our game that young women are getting involved,” Kerri said this week. “You grow up watching this game and there are so many amazing women in all areas of curling. More are participating on and off the ice, getting into the coaching roles as well.

“We still have a shortage of coaches, coaching clinics, promoting our junior programs, so this new grants program will hopefully help out with some that, and keep growing our game even more.”

She’s referring to recent Curling Canada news that a women’s leadership group is providing up to $10,000 for gender-equity projects and initiatives. The Women Curling Leaders’ Circle — a group of players, coaches and officials — will provide five grants of up to $2,000 each to support new projects and ideas that attract women and girls to curling.

Elaine Dagg-Jackson, Canada’s national coach and program manager for women’s curling in the country, said women have always had a major presence in the sport in the Great White North, as evidenced by a heady list of international champions, a number of elite-level coaches, such as Manitoba’s own Patti Wuthrich, high-ranking officials and volunteer adminstrators.

But the leaders’ circle had a vision to take that further.

“We wanted to use that momentum, and that history of doing things so well, and take it to other layers and other areas to build on that success. The group was able to find a way to support some worthy projects in communities and provinces,” said Dagg-Jackson. “It wasn’t that we identified gaps. We approached it more like, ‘We have so many fantastic stories to tell and we want to do a better job of telling them.’

“There aren’t many areas of the sport that are male-dominated. But by sharing our experiences a little more boldly, the hope is to influence even more women to get involved in curling.” 

The leaders’ circle held its first conference at the Scotties in Moose Jaw, Sask., in February but likely won’t meet in person during the interrupted 2020-21 season — owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. But a Zoom invitational conference is planned for February.

Olympic and world champion Jill Officer and national champion Connie Laliberte, both of Winnipeg, are part of the group, which also includes Curling Canada CEO Katherine Henderson.

Dagg-Jackson is hoping grant applications come from grassroots community-based groups to nationally recognized curlers or teams.

“It could be a local leader with an idea that will impact further down into the community. It could be a well-known coach or an athlete who wants to pass on their love of curling. The sky’s the limit,” Dagg-Jackson said.

“As a national coach and a longtime leader in curling for many years, I often engage with athletes who are looking for ways to give back to the sport or share their knowledge and experiences after they retire or even when they’re still playing, as time allows. Hopefully, this might open up an other avenue that we can explore not just this year but in the future.

“Everything we do is to inspire those young future champions and those young people that will have the joy of curling for the lifetime.”

She pointed to the success of Mackenzie Zacharais and her squad from Altona (Karlee Burgess, Lauren Lenentine and Emily Zacharias), 2020 Canadian and world junior champions.

“They’re the faces of this opportunity. We need those champions to inspire and attract young people,” said Dagg-Jackson. “Manitoba has always been a centre of curling excellence, with many champions produced. It’s pretty interesting, with a lens that I get to see across the country, that champions inspire champions, and if you rub shoulders with someone at the curling club who’s been there, done that, you tend to have a little bit more belief that maybe you can do that, too. That’s really what happens in Winnipeg and other communities, that feeling of possibilities and excellence resonates.

“Not only do we want to see that happen organically, we want to help share those stories a little bit wider so they have more impact. And we hope some of these programs we are creating will do that.”  

The Women in Curling grants are funded by Sport Canada and contributions by Own the Podium (a federally funded not-for-profit group that works to help Canadian athletes reach more medal finishes in Olympic and Paralympic Games) and Kruger Products, the longtime sponsor of the Scotties.

Applications for the grants must be received by Dec. 31. Check out curling.ca/blog/2020/12/17/gender-equity-grants/ for more information.

Successful applicants will be notified by Jan. 15, 2021.

jason.bell@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @WFPJasonBell