Time off can’t stop skips from success
HANNA, McCARVILLE AND LAROUCHE RETURN AFTER BREAK FOR FAMILY
Mom’s the word at the 2016 Scotties Tournament of Hearts. There are three skips at the Canadian women’s curling championship who took time away from the sport while raising a family.
Coincidentally, all three of them — Ontario’s Jenn Hanna, Quebec’s MarieFrance Larouche and Northern Ontario’s Krista McCarville — marked their returns to curling by reaching the Scotties in Grande Prairie.
“Hashtag: Year of t he Moms, right?” Hanna says with a laugh. “I like it.” What’s not to like? “It ’s really cool,” says Hanna, 36, whose previous Scotties appearance was her silver medal effort in 2005. “It’s a different experience for me altogether this time.
“This was sort of a once-ina- lifetime dream, I thought. Growing up, I wanted to make one Scotties. When I did it when I was 25, I thought, ‘ Oh wow, I sort of achieved my dream, and that’s it.’ Not that I’ ll never make it again, but I never thought I’d make it that early.
“Years passed and life happened and kids happened and I think I just assumed, I guess, at that point that it probably wouldn’t happen again. So for me, this is living a dream for the second time, and that’s really cool.”
In the case of Larouche, she stepped aside from competitive curling for three years after l osing in the bronze- medal game at the 2012 Scotties. During the hiatus, Larouche focused on her job as a teacher and on raising her two children.
“It was also because it was too hard for me to lose,” says Larouche, 35. “When I lost, I was so bad, so it was too hard. That’s why I decided to quit, just to make time for some other things.
“But last year, when I went to provincials (as a spectator), when I saw the final, I had some butterflies in my stomach, I knew at that moment that I would be back.”
And she returned with a flourish, qualifying for her ninth appearance at the Scotties. “It’s in our blood, but sometimes you just have to focus on other things just to remember why we are here.”
Like Larouche, McCarville felt that her passion for the sport was reignited when she attended the Northern Ontario championship as a spectator in 2015, during a year off from curling.
McCarville felt she had “tired” and wanted to devote time to her two children, in addition to teaching fulltime. But she felt the itch. Hanna can relate. “I wanted to raise a family,” she says. “The truth is the game has really changed over the last few years. It has become a sport now where, really, you have to almost do it at a pro level. You have to make it a first priority to really be at the top of your game. ... To be quite honest, that doesn’t interest me.
“I’ ve got three kids at home and a full-time job (as a supervisor for the federal Department of Public Safety) that I really love. This is my passion. It’s ( also) my pastime. I say that with the utmost respect for anybody that does do it professionally. It’s just not for me. So I’m here enjoying this and I’m going to savour the moment.”
Hanna also appreciates the input of her husband, who urged his wife to return to high-level curling.
“After having my kids and going back to work, I’d lost myself a little bit,” Hanna says. “I knew who I was as Jenn the mom and Jenn as a wife and Jenn as a worker, but I’d lost myself a little bit.
“It was actually my husband who said, ‘ You know? Curling’s your passion and it always has been. I don’t care what level you play it at, but you need to be playing it because it’s your thing.’
“It’s also really neat with my kids at home, and they see Mom ( on TV),” Hanna says. “They’re watching Mommy on TV and thinking this is pretty neat,” Hanna continues. “I’m loving this experience with them. They think this is pretty cool.
“I’m going to totally take that for now, because I won’t always be cool.”