Coaches Thomas and Lind friendly foes at world women’s curling championship

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This article was published 24/03/2016 (3842 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

SWIFT CURRENT, Sask. – Charley Thomas and J.D. Lind are ready for things to go back to normal.

The long-time friends are competing against each other at the women’s curling world championship with Thomas coaching Chelsea Carey’s Canada rink and Lind guiding Satsuki Fujisawa’s team from Japan.

Lind, who now lives in Japan, visited Calgary the week before the international event in Swift Current, Sask., and went out for dinner with Thomas, Carey and the rest of their rink after the Alberta team won the Scotties Tournament of Hearts and the right to represent Canada at the worlds.

“We never really talked a whole lot about it because we knew we’d be competing against each other,” said Lind on Thursday after Japan beat Canada 11-2 in six ends in round-robin play. “Even this week we’ve had small talk but nothing too serious.

“I think that once the event’s done we’ll all be relieved and things can go back to normal.”

Thomas and Lind played together at the Glencoe Curling Club in Calgary as teenagers. When Lind aged out of junior competition, he became Thomas’s coach, helping him to the 2007 world junior championships. It was Thomas’s second straight gold.

“I don’t think maybe 10 years ago we would have thought we’d be on a coaching bench beside each other,” said Thomas. “We thought that we’d be on the ice playing together. It’s a little bit of an unusual situation, but it’s neat.”

Thomas and Lind have contrasting personalities, and the different ways they handle situations on the ice has helped them learn from each other.

“J.D. just brings a real passion and knowledge to the game that not a lot of people have,” said Thomas. “He’s a former competitive player so he knows what it’s like to be out there and he knows what it takes to win.”

When told that Thomas had described him as a fierce competitor Lind laughed and described his friend in equally glowing words.

“He is stoic, for sure. Stone faced. But he is competitive, he’s just smart, he’s super skilled at curling and definitely at coaching he’s the same,” said Lind. “He’s one of those guys where he doesn’t overplay his hand. He’s extremely talented, for sure.”

In particular, Lind praises Thomas’s work ethic and says it’s influenced the way he approaches curling and coaching alike.

“He’s two-time world junior champ and that wasn’t be accident,” said Lind. “He definitely worked very hard growing up and he showed me that if I wanted to be a top curler or now, in my position, a top coach, you can’t cut corners.

“You have to work hard and you have to commit to doing it. I think that’s really been my motivation with the Japanese.”

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