The Val Sweeting rink would have done well at the tables in Las Vegas if they had been on Team North America for the Continental Cup.
While they were playing at the TSN Pinty’s All-Star Skins Game in Banff last weekend they had their poker faces on and were holding a pretty big card against their team jackets.
A few days later on their Facebook page, Sweeting announced a move from long time coach Garry Coderre to recently retired, former world champion skip Jeff Stoughton of Winnipeg.
By doing it on Facebook on a Friday afternoon while the Continental Cup was underway Sweeting was hoping the announcement would make little noise. It didn’t.
“We’ve been doing some work with Jeff this season and we really value what he can bring to our team,” wrote Sweeting.
“He already has a lot on his plate with mixed doubles, family and career, so we really appreciate him stepping in for our provincial championship.”
Stoughton retired from play last spring and is now running Curling Canada’s mixed doubles program. He was in Las Vegas for the WFG Continental Cup and headed to Calgary on Monday to help Sweeting navigate the dangerous waters at the 2016 Jiffy Lube Scotties Tournament of Hearts.
Twelve teams will be arrive at the North Hill Curling Club on Tuesday for practice, then will begin play Wednesday to decide who will represent the province at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts in Grande Prairie in late February.
Sweeting enters the provincial Scotties as the reigning champion and remains the No. 1 seed. They open play in the second draw Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. against either Jodi Marthaller of Lethbridge or Jessie Kaufman of Edmonton.
Right now Stoughton is their coach for this week only. Sweeting is saying that they will re-evaluate after the provincials. If they don’t win this week, they won’t need him much the rest of the way, obviously.
Sweeting enters the provincials ranked third in the Canadian Team Ranking System behind Rachel Homan of Ottawa and Winnipeg’s Jennifer Jones, the reigning Canadian champ. She is trying to stop a pattern of losing to those two teams when it matters most and is hoping Stoughton can help find the solution.
Sweeting’s only win in nine tries on the World Curling Tour this season was the HDF Insurance Shoot-Out in Edmonton way-back on Sept. 20 against a field that included this week’s top chasers at North Hill, Chelsea Carey of Calgary and Kelsey Rocque of Edmonton, who graduated from the junior ranks after winning a second-straight world junior title last spring.
Sweeting was a measurement away from beating Jones in the final of the Skins Game, then headed back to Edmonton to prepare for North Hill and prepare a statement announcing the switch to Stoughton.
While they are still favoured this week, it certainly isn’t cut and dry.
“The competition at the provincials is going to be very good and you can’t take anything for granted,” Sweeting told reporters in Banff.
“You have to play well each and every game, so we want to focus on ourselves.”
Stoughton has been brought in to help Sweeting get out of Alberta again, but to also help her get over the hump at the nationals. She’s lost the past two Scotties finals — to Jones in 2015 and to Homan in 2014 — and is trying to avoid a threepeat and being labeled as a skip who has trouble winning the big one.
ON THE ROCKS … The Optimist Under 18 men’s and women’s district playdowns run Friday through Sunday at the Airdrie Curling Club. Eight qualifers from each side advance to the Southern Alberta Curling Association southern playdowns on Feb. 5-7 in Crowsnest Pass (women) and Cochrane (men) . . . Marc Kennedy, who plays third for Kevin Koe out of The Glencoe Club, has announced plans for his first Marc Kennedy Classic Junior Bonspiel March 25-27 at the St. Albert Club. It replaces the Kevin Martin Junior Bonspiel, which was held for 16 years at the Saville Centre in Edmonton . . . Team Canada’s Pat Simmons moves on from helping Team North America win the WFG Continental Cup in Las Vegas to the Ed Werenich Golden Wrench Classic in Tempe, Ariz., this week. Calgary’s Charley Thomas is also in the field in a final tuneup prior to the Boston Pizza Cup provincials in Camrose Feb. 10-14.
mackinnonjeff@hotmail.com