ON THE ROCKS: New-look Team Homan making things happen with Fleury calling the games

Just to clear up any confusion, Rachel Homan still has a curling team that bears her name, and still throws last rocks, but she’s no longer the skip.

Homan, a three-time Canadian women’s champion who represents the Ottawa Curling Club but lives near Edmonton, handed the game-calling duties to veteran Tracy Fleury this season and it’s a move that has produced great results so far.

With Fleury throwing third stones and calling the strategy, Homan throwing fourth stones and handling sweeping duties, Team Homan has won two events in the last month and currently sits atop the Canadian Team Ranking System standings.

“It’s been really good,” said Emma Miskew, a long-time team member who has moved from third to second this season.

“It was definitely very different at the beginning for everyone. We knew it wasn’t going to be instantaneously easy to be all in these new roles. Especially for Rachel and Tracy, who have both been skipping for their whole careers, they’re both doing something different now and we knew there would be a little bit of a learning curve to that.”

In a departure from the way things have been done in Canada and at the World Curling Federation level for many years, the foursome remains known as Team Homan, even though the rules suggest it should be called Team Fleury.

Miskew said the team members wanted to stay with Team Homan because of the branding and recognisability they’ve built over the years. Though there was some resistance from Curling Canada and the WCF, it seems no one is going to make a fuss about the team name at this point.

“I know it was a little bit controversial, but it wasn’t intended to be,” said Miskew, whose team also includes lead Sarah Wilkes.

“It was just something we had chosen to do. It seems like it has passed through and we’re allowed to do that now, whereas it seemed a little dicey at times.

“I just think teams should be allowed to be called whatever they want to be called. There shouldn’t be a rule about that. I know they’re trying to avoid having it be a sponsor or something like that, where you don’t know who the team is, and that’s fine, but this is a decision we made just for consistency for our sponsors and all of our fans.”

Homan and Miskew have played together as back-enders since they were teenagers. They’ve won three Canadian women’s championships and been runners-up three more times, they’ve won a world championship (2017) and represented Canada at the Olympics in 2018.

It’s a pretty big departure for this team to not have Homan calling the shots and not have Miskew in the house as her vice-skip.

“We’ve been doing the exact same thing for our entire careers, just with different players playing front end,” Miskew said. “For me, it’s a really welcome change to be doing something different and have a new challenge, sweeping last rocks instead of being in the house.

“I’ve been enjoying that element. I feel like I know the game really well and I know where rocks need to be placed, ideally. I like having an influence there too.”

Meanwhile, 33-year-old Homan is an athletic curler who has always been a strong sweeper, but rarely got to use the skill in the women’s game in the past.

“Rachel is very strong and we said ‘We should use you,’” Miskew said.

“She’s been really loving being a sweeper and having more impact on front end rocks and being able to provide more information that she sees when throwing last and helping us to make our shots too.”

Then there’s Fleury, a Sudbury, Ont., resident who was a shot away from winning the Olympic trials in 2021 with her Manitoba team, and has been near the top of the women’s rankings for several years now.

She’s known to be a great strategist and maybe taking the pressure off of having to throw last rocks works well for her.

“Tracy’s just a really calm, smart player to have in the house,” Miskew said. “Everyone is just fitting in really well to their roles. Tracy has been great. It’s really nice having her on board and she’s fit in really well with the team.”

It’s hard to argue with the success the team has had so far. Team Homan has a 23-5 record to this point and picked up wins at recent events in Grand Prairie, Alta., and Red Deer, Alta. The foursome also lost the final of an event in Edmonton in September.

“We definitely have made the right shots, at the right time, and it’s been clicking,” Miskew said. “We’re all learning still, so much, from each other, learning where to be, what to say, and all that.

“At first glance, there was a bit of criticism about the way Rachel and Tracy were communicating but it was just a little different from what people were used to. I don’t think people have really connected to the fact that Rachel’s entire career, I’ve been the one in the house with her. The communication and conversations about how it needs to go with Tracy are just different.”

WILD CARDS

Curling Canada announced earlier this month that three wild-card teams will once again be in the field at the national men’s and women’s championships.

The wild card spots will be given to the teams with the highest CTRS ranking that do not win their provincial championships.

Curling Canada started using three wild cards in 2021 when provincial championships were cancelled and the event was held in a bubble, and did the same in 2022 because some qualifying events were cancelled.

Brad Gushue’s team from St. John’s, N.L., became the first wild card team to ever win a Canadian championship last March.

The 18-team fields for the Brier and Scotties allow for stronger teams to participate without having to win their way in through tough provinces like Manitoba, Alberta and Ontario.

LOOKING FOR TITLE SPONSOR

Curling Canada announced this week it is looking for a title sponsor for the Brier in 2024. Tim Hortons will end a 20-year run as the title sponsor for the Canadian men’s curling championship after the 2023 event in London, Ont.

Twyman@postmedia.com

Twitter.com/Ted_Wyman