Carey comfortable with change
CALGARY—A Chelsea Carey “seven degrees of separation” chart might come close to connecting the skip to every curler at the Canadian women’s championship.
The two-time national champion has played with a plethora of teammates in recent years. Seven of them — six curlers and a coach — are with other teams in Calgary’s curling bubble.
When Tracy Fleury opted not to skip the Wild Card One team at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts, Carey took over a lineup previously skipped by defending national champion Kerri Einarson from 2014 to 2018.
Carey was initially recruited as Fleury’s alternate until asked in January to call the shots for Selena Njegovan, Liz Fyfe and Kristin MacCuish in Calgary. Carey moved to Alberta in 2015 to form a new team after finishing third with Manitoba in the 2014 Tournament of Hearts.
Not only did Carey win a national title for Alberta with different teams in 2016 and 2019, those teams were newly formed rinks both times. Fleury’s team is the fourth different roster Carey’s skipped since moving to Alberta.
Curlers switching teams is common, but Carey is a highcalibre skip who has experienced more turnover than sixtime Hearts champion Jennifer Jones and two-time winner Rachel Homan.
Carey points out she had the same team for four years, and the same front end for eight, when she curled out of Manitoba.
“You move to a province and you don’t know the people and you try it out and maybe it doesn’t work, so then you have to start again,” Carey said. “It’s a bit experimental. I played with some players who were close to the end of their careers. If someone retires, that’s not necessarily in my control.”
Carey topped Pool B at 3-0 on Sunday. Sarah Hill of Newfoundland and Labrador was 2-0.