Colleen Jones: Team Homan taken game beyond next level

Rachel Homan drew high praise from curling legend Colleen Jones.

Jones recently penned her memoir Throwing Rocks at Houses with co-author Perry Lefko and shared her thoughts on Homan and her red-hot Ottawa-based team, who are cleaning up on tour this season having already captured five titles including back-to-back Grand Slams winning the Masters and National this month.

The two-time world and six-time Scotties champion Jones expressed how exciting it is to watch Team Homan play right now.

“They have taken their game beyond the next level,” she said. “They’re so solid at every aspect of the game and their game is so well-rounded. They’re such great champions on the ice. When you think of the future of curling in Canada, it’s hard to imagine how they are not such a big part of the conversation for the next, if they want, two decades. They’re just so talented and so strong.”

Jones claimed her first Canadian title in 1982 and then captured the championship five more times during a dynasty six-year span from 1999-2004 with third Kim Kelly, second Mary-Anne Arsenault, and lead Nancy Delahunt. Homan won consecutive Scotties Tournament of Hearts in 2013 and 2014 with third Emma Miskew, second Alison Kreviazuk and lead Lisa Weagle and earned bronze last season with Joanne Courtney taking over at second.

Jones, who works as a reporter and weather personality for CBC in Halifax, shared the challenges she faced over her career that Team Homan may encounter in the future.

“Now, I won my first Canadian championship when I was 22 and then I didn’t win again until I hit 40 because life got in the way in terms of career and children,” Jones said. “Things can happen in life that you’re trying to balance and have this other life when you’re in your late 20s and early 30s and that’s the challenge for them because the circuit is a big long gruelling circuit.

“For them trying to find the balance is going to be the hard thing but it’s so incredible to watch where their game is. It’s a beautiful thing because all four players are just incredibly strong, focused and talented. It’s wonderful because when you look at our women’s world record it’s almost always those other darn teams that are clearly strong but her and (Scotland’s) Eve Muirhead it just kind of gives that good hope of where curling is at right now.”

Team Homan look to continue their hot streak at the Canada Cup of Curling (Dec. 2-6 in Grande Prairie, Alta.) and follow that up by seeking their third straight Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling title of the year at the Canadian Open (Dec. 8-13 in Yorkton, Sask.)

Jones’s memoir Throwing Rocks at Houses: My Life In and Out of Curling, published by Viking Canada, is available now in bookstores.