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It didn’t take long for Jeff Stoughton to find himself back into the swing of things on the curling scene.

The two-time world champion and three-time Brier winner from Winnipeg stepped back from competitive curling following the Players’ Championship in April and was named Curling Canada’s mixed doubles program manager just four months later. Stoughton, 52, expanded his role with Curling Canada to include helping coach the national teams at select events.

Although this means hitting the road for the tour life once again, Stoughton admitted during the Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling Masters earlier this month that it’s been a bit of adjustment from player to coach … when it comes to packing clothes at least.

“Usually you grab all of your sponsor’s sweaters and jackets and everything else and I stood there and went, ‘Wow I actually have to take real clothes,'” said Stoughton, a four-time Grand Slam champion. “So it was kind of funny.”

When Stoughton signed up to oversee the mixed doubles program, he said the coaching aspect sort of went together. He originally agreed to pitch in during a training camp over the August long weekend but was then asked if he wanted to cover two or three events in the fall.

“So I put my hand up again like a dummy,” Stoughton said with a laugh. “No, it’s something I just want to do to stay part of the game, see these great teams develop and meet their potential. If I could make them one or two percent better I think that might be a difference.”

“It’s been really enjoyable to watch some of the games and be part of the inner circle of some other teams so you get a different perspective,” he added. “It’s probably only a couple, two or three events, that I’ll do that and it’s another learning experience.”

One of the teams Stoughton worked closely with during the Masters was Val Sweeting’s Edmonton-based crew. Sweeting, the 2014 Masters champion, said being able to draw upon Stoughton’s knowledge of the game has been key for her team.

“He knows what arena ice is going to do, even from morning draw to evening draw and we’ve definitely learned a lot,” she said. “We’ve been fortunate to play in an arena quite a bit but he has so much more experience and knowledge and he’s just been very good at giving us really good information when we head out there.”

Building the mixed doubles program in Canada is Stoughton’s prime objective for the next few years with the sport set to make its Olympic debut at the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Games.

“We’ve had lots of things to try and organize, get going to try and reach its potential for us to send a really good representative to the worlds this year and another great representative when we go to the Olympics, hopefully, because we haven’t qualified yet,” he said. “It feels good. I think I would have missed the game a little bit too much in the fall. I haven’t missed playing but I think it’s just sort of missing the atmosphere and what’s going on so it’s been nice to be able to go. This is my second event so it’s less travel for sure but it’s been pretty great and very comfortable.”

It’s been a bit of a challenge for Stoughton getting Canadians up to speed on mixed doubles with the sport as a whole heading on a fast track for the Olympics.

“People still probably don’t realize how big of a deal the Olympics are and I probably don’t even realize because I’ve never been there and experienced it but I only hear great and wonderful things about Team Canada,” he added. “I think it’s an opportunity for two more curlers to experience it in a mixed doubles event. It’s going to be very interesting because Canada doesn’t really know this game at all. I’ve had conversations with people at work, on the street, and they’re even surprised it’s two players. There’s a bit of a learning curve to go to the general public to understand the game so that’s something I’m sure Curling Canada is going to be working on over the next few years.”

The World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship has been held annually since 2008. Traditional curling fans might be surprised to learn that through eight events, Canada has struggled a bit earning only one medal — bronze in 2009 — while Hungary has won gold at two of the past three world championships.

“Hungary may have a great curling program but there may only be one or two great men’s players or one or two great women’s players so they play mixed doubles together and you’ve got a pretty darn good team as they’ve proven,” Stoughton explained. “The woman on the team (Dorottya Palancsa) hadn’t even played a traditional game, she’s only played mixed doubles since she’s started curling. It’s a different feel over in Europe where they’ve embraced this game a lot more than Canada has and we’ve got some catching up to do for sure.”

Stoughton will be in Oshawa, Ont., during the National — running Tuesday through Sunday at the General Motors Centre — and he’ll be sticking around afterwards as the next mixed doubles event conveniently takes place in town immediately following the Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling event.

As for the next step for mixed doubles, Stoughton said it would be wonderful if there was a Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling event that featured the format.

“The schedule is so busy with everything it would be nice if they could pencil one in there,” he said. “It would be really good to get it some great TV exposure, some of these great players playing in it and having some fun. It’s something different. We ran an event in Portage la Prairie between the men’s and ladies events at the Canad Inns Classic there and all the players who came we hit them hard. We made them play four games in a day but they loved it.

“It’s just something new and something different. I think that’s what makes it exciting for these players over the next few years it’s going to be new and exciting. We’re looking forward to bigger and better things.”