RING LEADERS AT THE SCOTTIES
Carey, Homan loom as teams to beat
Chelsea Carey wants to make it clear that the Maple Leaf she’ll be wearing on her back is not a target.
At least it’s not the target everyone will be shooting for at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts at the Meridian Centre in St. Catharines, Ont.
“It’s funny because I don’t really think we are the ones with the target,” the defending champion said. “I think it’s Rachel (Homan) who has the target more than us. We’d be up there in the conversation as far as the field goes, but it’s as much of an underdog situation as you can possibly have with the Maple Leaf on your back. Which is OK with me.”
Homan, who will represent Ontario, is a two-time Canadian champion and is ranked No. 2 in the country heading into this year’s Scotties, which started with the pre-qualifying tournament Thursday and runs to Feb. 26.
The only team ranked ahead of Homan is Olympic champion Jennifer Jones and she did not qualify for the Scotties this year. Homan is ranked No. 1 in the World Curling Tour standings.
“We were prepared to have a target so we’re ready for that, but I think it’s a smaller one than it could have been,” Carey said. “(The Homan team) is always going to be the favourite in any event they go into regardless of what it is. That’s just the reality. There are events that are harder to win than the Scotties from a field perspective and last year I think they won almost every one of those. You certainly know that they’ll be tough and if you look at the rankings, they’d be the favourite and the one with the target on their backs.”
Carey won her first Canadian title last year, representing Alberta. Before that, she competed out of Manitoba and won her first provincial title there in 2014.
Her team of Amy Nixon, Jocelyn Peterman and Laine Peters is currently ranked 13th in the Canadian Team Ranking System and has not had the best season despite having an automatic entry into the Scotties as defending champ.
“It’s weird because I don’t think I’ve not played in a provincial championship since I was about 15,” said Carey, 32. “So you sit around and watch everybody else play and it feels like you’re doing something wrong by not playing. It was quite bizarre.”
Carey and Homan are the only former champions in the field and there’s a wide gap between them and many of the other teams. Manitoba’s Michelle Englot (ranked sixth), Alberta’s Shannon Kleibrink (15th) and Northern Ontario’s Krista McCarville (17th) will all provide strong competition. McCarville lost the final to Carey last year, Kleibrink is a former Olympic bronze medallist and Englot will skip a team in the Scotties for the ninth time.
“If you looked at last year there was probably only one team (Jones) that had won before,” Carey said. “It’s similar to last year in that sense. New faces are good and there’s a lot of teams in there that are close. Shannon Kleibrink lost a final and would have been favoured to win a lot of Scotties.
“It’s an interesting field and it will be fun to see some of the new faces out there. Englot has the experience and they’ve had an incredible season. Krista McCarville ... we played her in the final last year and she’s made the playoffs before. There’s lots of really good teams and it will be a tough week for us, but it should be fun.”
Englot, who lives in Regina, will represent Manitoba for the first time after skipping seven times for Saskatchewan at the Scotties. Her teammates — Kate Cameron, Leslie Wilson and Raunora Westcott — recruited the 53-year-old after their skip, Kristy McDonald, decided to take a step back from curling. It resulted in an outstanding season, a huge win over Jones in a playoff game at the Manitoba provincials and now a Scotties appearance.
“It’s a pretty incredible feeling actually,” Englot said. “It’s as exciting as my very first Scotties that I went to. I’m super proud to be representing Manitoba. My teammates have put so much into it this year that it’s definitely very, very rewarding.”
Englot’s first Scotties was way back in 1988, her most recent in 2012. She’s seen enough to know there can be more than one favourite in any event.
“Certainly Rachel being ranked No. 1 in the world, she’d probably have to be the favourite, but there’s still a target on Team Canada’s back because everybody knows what they are capable of. When you wear that flag, you have that target, so to speak.”