Politics

I learned at a young age that there are many different variables that go into forming a team. Obviously how you interact with your teammates will go a long way into deciding how competitive your team is going to be. Will your team be a recreational or an elite level team? Can all four players play at a high level? Parents have a large impact on their child's decisions when growing up. What type of decisions will the child make when there older?

In this day and age of curling the Olympics have changed the face of the roaring game. We all know that only 1 mens and 1 womens team will represent each country at the Olympics. Until the rest of the world catches up to Canada in terms of depth, representing Canada in curling might be the single hardest thing to do in sport. This has forced teams in Canada to take the game to entire new level. A level which you could consider Professional. The only thing lacking to make it truly professional is the money. There just isn't enough money in curling yet to comfortably make money to live on. Teams are training year round like they never have before. It is all about that berth into the Olympics every four years.

In a relatively quite off season Jennifer Jones made the most noise releasing her Third Cathy O and her replacing her with the young Kaitlyn Lawes. Not many people saw this move coming and have condemned Jones for doing so. No one other than members of her team will know the true reason on why they kicker Cathy-O off the team. It has been reported by the media that Cathy-O was blindsided and was given no real notice until the last second. Cathy-O has lost a lot of national funding from the CCA and quite a bit of sponsorship money. Everyone is looking forward to the on and off ice confrontation between these two elite level curlers. I personally hope that the two of them find time to put it behind them because they are two of the best.

Jennifer Jones could have dealt with this situation in  a more diplomatic way. She has kicked people off her teams in the past and as far as I know she has never been kicked off a team. Now I could totally be wrong about this. Jones has burned many bridges in the past and it is only a matter of time until it catches up with her. She has been able to avoid this by her ability to step up her game when its all on the line. We all remember that amazing shot she made at the 2005 Scotties. Cathy Overton-Clapham has skipped teams at national championships before including a national junior title in 1989. Overton-Clapham is heading toward the end of her competitive career but I bet she still has what it takes to get back to the Scotties as a skip. I am certainly looking forward to see this instant rivalry unfold in the upcoming months. We could not have as an audience a better storyline if Jones and Overton-Clapham face off at the Scotties final in February.

New Beginnings

I would like to welcome and thank everyone who is going to take their time to read this blog. A big thank you to Resby Coutts of thecurler.com who will act as my mentor this year for my practicum. I am a student at the Academy of Broadcasing in Winnipeg taking their Radio and Television broadcasting course. Resby was gracious enough to accept my services this fall to assist him with his curling show "Rock Talk" on Sports Radio 1290. If you live in the Winnipeg area you can tune in by turning your radio dial to 1290 am or by visiting the Sports Radio 1290 website to stream the show. I will also be writing pieces of work for thecurler.com.

Entries will be made every few days as I will express my thoughts on everything that affects the Roaring Game. Please leave comments below with suggestions and criticism.I am looking forward to meeting and speaking with everyone who has something invested in this great game. Until next time have a good one!!!

JB

PS The official Press release can be viewed here