Revamped Homan team basing itself out of Alberta for the season

They were world champs in 2017, Olympians in 2018 and Scotties finalists in both 2019 and 2020 and they achieved their success by starting training in July each year and playing one of the busiest schedules in curling.

Things look a whole lot different for members of the Rachel Homan team this year.

The Homan foursome, which represents the Ottawa Curling Club, has been reduced to playing practice games so far this season as their sport tries to navigate its way through the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We would have had a bunch of events in by now but we don't really have that option,” Team Homan third, Emma Miskew, said in a phone interview this week.

“We could have played a few, probably, if we wanted to travel everywhere, but it's hard to know what to do, and balance how much travel and how much risk we want to take and all that, especially with (lead Joanne Courtney) and Rachel having young ones at home.”

Things should look a little more normal for the threetime Canadian women's curling champions this weekend, when they are scheduled to take part in the ATB Okotoks Classic in Alberta.

The team has decided to base itself out of Alberta for the remainder of the cash bonspiel season. It makes a lot of sense, considering Homan and Courtney live in the Edmonton area and new second Sarah Wilkes lives in Calgary.

Only Miskew remains in Ottawa, though the team is still eligible to represent Ontario in national championships because Homan and Wilkes qualify under birthright rules and Courtney is an import.

“Things are just a little bit easier out west right now, just for curling in general,“Miskew said.

“Most of the clubs (in Ottawa) aren't even open right now so you have to go somewhere.”

Alberta has become the hotbed for curling so far this season and there are numerous events on the schedule in the province between now and Christmas.

The Homan team plans to play in Okotoks this weekend, then play in mixed doubles events (on separate teams) for the next two weeks, then take part in the Red Deer Curling Classic at the end of the month.

“Then I can go home,” Miskew said with a laugh.

“It's odd to have not played in so long. We normally start at the end of July in the past few years. So it was a long break and it was definitely not easy to not know what to expect. The hardest part was not knowing whether we'd have a season, a modified season or no season at all.”

The last time the Homan team was together for a competition was in February, when they lost the Scotties Tournament of Hearts final to Manitoba's Kerri Einarson.

Since then they've made a couple changes to their team — Wilkes replaced longtime lead Lisa Weagle on the foursome, while Courtney moved from the second position to lead — but haven't had a chance to try things out.

“We do know Sarah, which is great,” Miskew said. “She's fitting in really nicely.

“When (Courtney) joined the team (in 2014), I picked her up at the airport and said `Nice to meet you.' Even though we played against her a bunch, we didn't know her all that well.”

The Homan foursome has represented Ontario eight times at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts and has won the event three times. They'll no doubt be favourites to win Ontario and to contend at the Scotties again this year, if that event even happens.

Right now, it looks like several major Canadian curling championships may be played in a bubble format in Calgary, but nothing is carved in stone.

“I don't have any idea what January or February, right at this moment, is going to look like, which is very rare,” Miskew said. “Normally, everything is very planned out and the unknown of what is coming and it's just the oddest part of the season.”

Emma Miskew