Curling’s battle for Manitoba begins Wednesday

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This article was published 09/01/2018 (2997 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

KILLARNEY, Man. — Jennifer Jones wasn’t in the arena Sunday afternoon in Portage la Prairie; a touch of the flu, she says, though she’s better now, mostly. But she watched the game, watched it intently, right to the very last rock.

When that rock squeaked to a stop, when it was official that Kaitlyn Lawes and her newly minted teammate, John Morris, had won the 2018 Canadian Olympic mixed doubles curling trials, Jones fired a text to her longtime third.

She was “thrilled” for Lawes, Jones says, chatting after practice Tuesday at Killarney’s Shamrock Centre. It’s what Jones, Lawes, second Jill Officer and lead Dawn McEwen hoped for, when they all entered the mixed doubles trials.

If they couldn’t return to the Olympics this year together, they figured, at least one of them could go on.

“We’re super excited for Kaitlyn,” Jones says. “We worked so hard and we wanted one of us to try and win.”

Then one of them did, and the roller-coaster keeps rolling: just two days after Lawes became a two-time Olympian, she was back practising with her usual teammates, sliding rocks down pristine sheets at Killarney’s pretty arena.

The battle for Manitoba begins here Wednesday, and Team Jones must be ready.

Already, questions are swirling. If Jones should win Manitoba this year — she is, of course, a heavy favourite — then Lawes will not be able to go to the 2018 Scotties in Penticton, B.C., with her. Olympic preparations take precedence.

If that were to happen, they will have some options. Their frequent fifth, Jennifer Clark-Rouire, is also in Killarney this week, skipping her own team out of Miami. Or, Jones could opt to recruit another young hotshot to fill Lawes’ sliders.

They’ve barely had time to think about that, though — and they can’t get ahead of themselves, either.

“We’ll just figure it out after the event,” Jones says. “A lot of good things have to happen here, for us to be successful… we’ll just worry about the next rock and the next game, and see if we can find a way to play on Sunday.”

Because winning Manitoba is no gimme, not even for the curling world’s brightest stars. Jones has always said that, and always known it. But last year proved it beyond all doubt; in 2017, she fell to Darcy Robertson in a semifinal stunner.

That seems so long ago now, though, and so far behind them. After practice Tuesday, a reporter asked Jones whether “what happened last year” can help them going in. For a moment, the skip blinked, trying to remember.

“I was like, ‘what happened last year?’” she said, and then it came to her. “Oh, right,” she quipped.

“To be honest, we don’t really think about that,” she says.

“We’ve had a really good year. We obviously didn’t win the one event (the Olympic trials) we really wanted to win, but… we’d love to get back to another Scotties.”

Yet what happened last year does, perhaps, linger in the vibe of the competition. It’s one thing to say that anything can happen, another to actually see it — especially in a province where Jones had been dominant for more than a decade.

“If a team gets hot for a week, that’s just how it goes,” says skip Kerri Einarson, this year’s returning second seed.

For years, Jones has been a hurdle too high for Einarson’s East. St Paul team. In 16 career matches, Einarson has yet to beat her.

“They’re an unreal team,” Einarson says. But now she adds this: “I think we’re closing in on them.”

It’s not only Jones, though. After Tuesday’s practice, Einarson thought back to the events of 2017. Robertson also upset her team, in a tiebreaker, and they’re in the same round-robin pool in Killarney. Einarson must be careful.

“Darcy came out shooting last year,” Einarson says. “We definitely gotta be prepared for that.”

So there’s hunger, then, all over the field: by a superstar in what is likely the waning years of a decorated career, by a sharpshooter ready to finally get past her, and by a steady-hand veteran who knows that she can topple them both.

This week, those stories will mix together. At least one will add a chapter at nationals. Due to a Scotties format change, it’s possible another Manitoba team could snag a berth via ranking. We’ll examine that potential later.

If it’s Jones that goes ahead, well, she’s been there before. If it isn’t, she still has a big year in store.

There’s curling. There’s family. In her home, those two loves are often the same thing: Jones and husband Brent Laing’s five-year-old daughter, Isabella, is absorbing the family tradition. (Sixteen-month-old Skyla is close behind.)

“She’s (saying), ‘Oh, they have the hammer now, mom, they’re going to throw a guard,’” Jones says, her eyes sparkling as she recounts Isabella’s chatter. “She’s totally into it. It is so awesome to see, she loves watching sports.”

And soon, only weeks away, there will be the Olympics: for Lawes, on the ice. For Jones, it will be in the stands, as she travels to Pyeongchang to cheer Laing, as he competes for gold behind skip Kevin Koe, and her teammate.

“I think I’ll be (at mixed doubles) during the medal rounds,” Jones says, grinning.

“Hopefully, I’ll maybe snag a ticket.”

melissa.martin@freepress.mb.ca