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Experienced N.S. curlers look to turn heads this week at Masters
Mary-Anne Arsenault had just come off the ice from a solo practice session when she checked her phone and saw the news.
An email let her know she would be competing alongside the best in the world once again, this time with her new team and her new role. The skip of the reigning Nova Scotia-winning team looked around for anybody to share the news with.
“I was shaking, I was so excited,” she recalled. “I was all by myself though, looking around for someone I could tell.”
Finally she went to the rink manager’s room to break the news to someone. Her team (Christina Black, Jane Snyder and Jennifer Baxter) was heading to the Masters Grand Slam of Curling on a sponsor’s exemption.
“You don’t expect the sponsor to use an exemption on you, but we got the magic call and were thrilled to find out.”
Arsenault, a two-time world champion with the Colleen Jones rink in Halifax, will rejoin an elite global scene she was once part of annually. Despite moving to a new position, and playing with a relatively new team, Arsenault said she isn’t fazed by the competition.
“It’s really just throwing rocks up and down the ice,” she said. “It’s still the same old game.”
A last-minute illness to Snyder has left her out to start the tournament. Kim Kelly, a former teammate of Arsenault’s on the
Jones team, will fill in.
On the men’s side, Shawn Adams will skip a Nova Scotia club that also received an exemption to play. Adams, a fourtime provincial champ, will join 2004 Brier champs Mark Dacey and Andrew Gibson, as well as two-time world champion Craig Savill.
Adams and Dacey spent much of their careers in healthy competition as skips of separate teams, but have found plenty of common ground while working together early this season.
“Getting used to Mark didn’t take long,” Adams said. “We think a lot of the same things on the ice so it’s been an easy transition to make.”
The team has played four tournaments already this month, including one in Gatineau, Que., last weekend. It’s the most the 41-year-old Adams has ever curled in October, and has left him with his fair share of
aches and pains.
“I feel good going into this week though,” he reassured.
Both Nova Scotia teams opened their tournaments last night, with Adams taking on Pat Simmons’ Team Canada and Arsenault taking on Russia’s Anna Sidorova.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if we surprise some people,” Adams said. “We’ve got a tonne of experience ... All we have to do is make it to the playoffs and then anything can happen.”
Arsenault also has her sights set on meaningful curling this weekend. There’s nothing she would love more than to rekindle some of the magic from her time at the top of the curling world and share it with her new teammates.
“I’ve gained a lot of experience from those days – a lot on arena ice, which will carry forward this week,” she said. “I have a good wealth of experience to share with the youngins.”