By Dan Plouffe
Team Homan will enter their second consecutive Ford World Women’s Curling Championships March 15-23 in St. John, NB on a definite high.
The Ottawa Curling Club rink of Lisa Weagle, Alison Kreviazuk, Emma Miskew and Rachel Homan showed they’re back in business in a big way with their undefeated performance at February’s Scotties Tournament of Hearts in Montreal, earning the first perfect record at the women’s national championships since before any of them were born.
“We weren’t looking to set any records, but the fact we did it while having fun and winning is great,” says Miskew, the team’s third. “We were able to come out and have some fun out there, which, after the trials, was difficult.”
Earlier this season, the curlers, all in their mid-20s, were stung by a third-place finish at the Canadian Olympic team trials.
“We all made major sacrifices in our lives for that one event,” notes Miskew, referencing the time they took off from their day jobs. “You put so much into something and then it didn’t go as well as we had hoped.”
After an intense fall leading up to the trials, Team Homan took a break around the holidays, and found renewed life rather quickly thanks to relatively low-pressure events in Banff and then Las Vegas.
“Your love for the sport just comes back,” Miskew describes. “We needed that break just to reflect and let it sink in that we weren’t the Olympic team, but we still have a lot to look forward to.
“It takes a little bit of time, but we always have to remember that this is a game and we’re doing it because we love it.”
At the Continental Cup in Las Vegas, the Homan rink got to know Canada’s Olympic representatives on a more personal level as they joined forces to play for Team North America in the Ryder Cup-style competition.
“I think they were definitely the best rep this year,” signals Miskew, stating that there’s no substitute for experience, and offering a mature perspective on what was a crushing defeat for her team months earlier.
“It would have been really stressful going to the Olympics,” she adds. “Jones did such a good job. She has so much experience. She’s been at a few world championships. For her, she was able to relate back to past experiences. I think it was really good for her to be able to represent Canada.
“Looking back now, I think we would have been pretty stressed out there. The extra experience at this year’s world championships I think will really help us leading into the future when hopefully we’ll be able to wear that maple leaf during the Olympics.”
For the moment, Team Homan is excited to don Canadian colours in their own country for a world championship for the first time.
The Ottawa-bred quartet owns an excellent record recently when they’re the home team. They won their first Scotties title last year while competing as Team Ontario in Kingston, and while they technically weren’t the home team at this year’s Scotties, the proximity to Montreal meant that many Ottawa supporters drove down on the weekend to back them.
Miskew recalls that the atmosphere in Kingston did provide her team with a lift.
“The crowd was amazing,” underlines the Brookfield High School and Carleton University grad. “There were cheers all the time, which was awesome. There was so much energy. I feel like curling is going to make more of a turn in that direction – not just lightly clapping for a made shot, but the crowd went wild. That was so much fun. It was jam-packed. And this year was similar, just in a different setting.
“Being the hometown team is definitely a lot of fun.”
After a tough defeat in the semi-finals of last year’s world championships, Team Homan was thrilled to rebound and win a bronze medal, although they’d like to better that result this time around, Miskew indicates.
“This year we just want to do one better and get through that semi-final game and hopefully bring back gold for Canada,” she says.