Sweeping can be a challenge for mixed doubles teams

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This article was published 05/01/2018 (3010 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

PORTAGE LA PRAIRIE — Ask a number of foursome skips at this week’s national Olympic mixed doubles curling trials at Stride Place and they’ll admit sweeping isn’t their forte.

“My back is fine, the rest of me is struggling, but it’s good,” said Edmonton’s Brendan Bottcher. “I’ve been playing more mixed doubles this year than I ever have so I think that’s helped. It’s not easy when you go from skipping to sweeping.”

Fortunately for the 26-year-old, he is playing with a front-end player in Dana Ferguson, a second on Val Sweeting’s squad from the Alberta capital.

Even Ferguson admits it’s kind of strange having to occasionally call line instead of pound the broom.

“It’s definitely different as a second,” she said. “I don’t really say a whole lot so here sometimes I hit myself for not speaking up when I should and in this game it’s better to talk than to stay quiet, where in fours it’s better to stay quiet.

“It’s just learning kind of when to speak up and when to trust my gut and ask questions.”

Winnipegger Reid Carruthers said knowing he was going to be battling for a spot at the Winter Olympics was a major reason why he spent so much time working out in the off-season.

He’s in Portage la Prairie with former Brandonite Jill Officer after Joanne Courtney, who plays second with Rachel Homan’s Ottawa-based foursome, earned a spot in PyeongChang, South Korea, after winning the women’s Olympic trials event.

“I feel pretty good, it’s the reason why I hit the gym this summer,” Carruthers said. “I feel pretty good and if I play another six or seven games you could maybe ask me at the end of the week but I’ll be happy to be at that point in this event.”

Former Manitoban Chelsea Carey, who is teaming up with Carruthers’s lead Colin Hodgson, doesn’t even sweep. The same can be said for the duo of Brett Gallant and Jocelyn Peterman; both play second — Peterman for Carey and Gallant with reigning world champion Brad Gushue — yet it’s Gallant who is the only one sweeping rocks down the ice.

“(Hodgson) was the one who decided that he should sweep,” Carey said. “It’s his job on his team to sweep and it’s my job on my team to read the ice and call the line and call shots with strategy, so it just made sense.

“We tried it the first time we played with me sweeping — not my own shots but some of his — and we found we kept missing shots wondering, ‘Geez I threw that pretty good, why didn’t that curl?’ Because no one is down there watching what the other team’s rocks are doing and what your rocks are doing, you don’t get the same perspective on it as if somebody is standing down there. So we figured we would try it the other way and it just worked for us.”

Regardless of whatever strategy teams have taken, players have taken note of the importance of having front-end players on their team.

After Courtney was deemed ineligible for mixed doubles after winning the women’s trials, Carruthers knew he had to have a front-end player in order to have a legitimate chance in Portage. Still, he doesn’t think having a front-end player is the most important element to having success.

“I definitely need a front-end player to do most of the sweeping. I get to do some, which is great but (Jill)’s obviously a great shooter and a great sweeper so it’s important to have that,” Carruthers said. “I think the teams with the best communication are the best in mixed, not necessarily front-enders or back-enders.

“The teams that have won the Canadian championships over the last couple of years have all been teams that know each other well and have been playing together for a while and have very, very good communication.”

Mark Nichols, who joined Winnipeg’s Jennifer Jones after her husband Brent Laing earned a trip to the Olympics with Calgary’s Kevin Koe through last month’s men’s trials in the nation’s capital, believes sweeping is critical but it’s not necessarily going to make or break a team’s chances.

“I do think it says something in terms of the sweeping and judging, especially, but I just think there are so many good players,” Nichols said. “A lot of these guys and girls can play third or skip if they wanted to and are on really good teams, and that’s the position that suits them best.

“I just think with the talent pool on all these teams it’s so deep and everyone is pretty evenly matched.”

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