Jacobs rink just keeps on rolling

Foursome remains dominant despite loss of key member

At the end of last season, Brad Jacobs and his teammates made a triumphant announcement that they would buck the trend in men’s curling and stay together.

Little did they know that, by the end of 2018, the team would have a decidedly different look, at least for the short term.

Yet, through it all, the Jacobs team from Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., remains one of the hottest teams on the planet.

The 2014 Olympic champions — minus longtime third Ryan Fry — closed the year by winning the Canada Cup in Estevan, Sask., then going 4-0 in the round robin at the National before losing out in the quarter-finals of the Grand Slam event in Newfoundland.

For the Canada Cup, they had two-time Olympian Marc Kennedy at third. For the National, they picked up Matt Wozniak to play second, while E.J. Harnden moved up to throw third.

“With all the news that hit about Ryan and how exhausting that was ... we were able to take some of that energy and channel that and use it properly,” Jacobs said recently. “We were going in there with something to prove.”

The news about Fry wasn’t a positive for the Jacobs team, nor the curling world. Fry was part of a throw-together team for a second-tier event in Red Deer, Alta., and there was an incident of on-ice drunkenness that made international headlines. To his credit, Fry has taken a step back to get help.

Kennedy, who played in the 2018 Olympics with Kevin Koe, had taken a step back from the game himself, but showed no rust when he played in the Canada Cup.

“We were very fortunate to have a player as talented as Marc Kennedy step in and fill Fry’s shoes,” Jacobs said. “We played unbelievable right through the lineup, from lead to skip. We felt like we were the best team all week, but we still had to go out and prove it, and we did that.”

As for Kennedy, who is working as a consultant/roving coach for Curling Canada this year, playing in the Canada Cup certainly got the juices flowing.

“Being out on that ice in a big event. I was excited,” Kennedy said.

It’s been a stellar season so far for Ottawa’s Rachel Homan, whose team has bounced back nicely after failing to medal at the Olympics in Pyeongchang.

The Homan team won three major events in the first half of the season to move to the top of the women’s order of merit on the World Curling Tour.

Homan won the inaugural World Cup event in China in September, the Grand Slam Tour Challenge in Thunder Bay in November, and the Grand Slam National in Newfoundland in December.

In their other four events, Team Homan made it to three semifinals and lost one final.

As the Curling Canada Season of Champions approaches, they’re looking like the team to beat.