News General News

Kaitlyn Jones is coming home to start a fresh chapter in her rising curling career.

The 2018 world junior champion has spent the past two seasons in Nova Scotia but has now graduated to women’s play and is returning to Ontario to skip a new squad with third Allison Flaxey, second Clancy Grandy and lead Morgan Lavell.

Considering it’ll be her first full season on tour, Jones said she was “extremely shocked and honoured” when she was asked to skip for them next season.

“It shows that they think that I have potential and that they’re ready to bring me on their team right away and having me be in charge,” Jones said. “I was a little bit surprised that Allison wouldn’t be skipping because she has so much experience at the skip position and she’s just such a really good overall player. I thought that she would be skipping and I was probably going to be all for that as well if I were to play even third or second. I probably would have joined their team still but the fact that they actually asked me to be skip, it was incredible.

“I talked to my dad about it the same day that they asked me and he was like, to have a team who has already competed in an Olympic Trials, who has competed at a high level for the past number of years because they’ve already been in women’s, to have them ask you to play skip, you can’t turn that opportunity down. That’s huge, especially just coming out of juniors.”

The Ontario team isn’t exactly starting from scratch as Flaxey, Grandy and Lavell played together during the previous Olympic cycle until they parted ways a year ago. Grandy believed the chemistry was still there between them but if they were going to reunite, they’d have to do something dramatically different.

Although they had some success in the past winning the 2016 Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling Masters championship and competing at the 2017 Canadian Olympic curling trials, inconsistency prevented them from achieving their ultimate goals of representing Ontario at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts or Canada on the international stage.

“We’re such good friends but for some reason we found we couldn’t just make that next big step,” Grandy said. “We weren’t always able to bring out the best in each other on the ice, which is strange when you think about it because of how close we all were. …

“We went our separate ways, had some successes with our teams for sure but still were feeling like there’s something. There’s something that we can still change, something that we can do to be better.”

Even though second is the only position Grandy has never played before, she was up for the challenge of switching positions from third as she felt she really clicked as a sweeping duo with Lavell and it’s something they can build upon as a front-end pair. Flaxey was also open to shuffling the deck and decided to slide over from skip to third.

Discussions on what they were looking for in a new skip led them straight to Jones.

“She is completely fearless, which is something that we were looking for,” Grandy said. “She’s young so she has a lot of energy, a lot of enthusiasm. She just wants to curl. She wants to play at the highest level.

“She says she loves skipping and actually she wasn’t quite sure she was going to be able to find a team where she was able to skip moving into women’s because she’s young. She said she was almost a little bit afraid of not being able to skip because she just loves it so much. I think having that attitude, what more can you really ask for in a last-rock thrower.”

Jones is confident with her personality she’ll be able to mesh with the other three players and add to what they’ve already established.

“It’s not like we are creating a brand-new team because they already have a bond, they have the connection,” Jones said. “They’re bringing me on and since I’m able to be out there and out-going, talkative and able to state my opinion and whatnot, I think that we’ll be able to all get along really well as they already do.”

They’re aiming to get back into the Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling but also want to ensure once they return to the elite-level series, they remain there knowing the tough competition they’ll face plus several other teams are waiting in the wings and just as hungry for that chance.

“We’ve been there, we’ve done that but we’ve also not had success and have fallen out,” Grandy explained. “This time we’re trying to be smart about it and build ourselves up so that when we get in, we stay in.”

Jones, who played in two Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling events as a junior, has identical goals as her teammates and knowing they’ve competed at the top tier for a number of years and have what it takes also influenced her decision to latch on with them.

“I know that if I’m going to be curling, I want to play at a high level,” Jones said. “I want to compete and be able to be back at the Grand Slams all of the time. I want to play at the provincial level and win and try to go to nationals and all of that.

“Having the opportunity to play with a team who has that experience and who have already accumulated points, it’s huge because that’ll go towards us qualifying for future Grand Slams and potentially getting into bigger events. I know that’s what I want to play at and they want to play at that level too, so all of us together, we gel really well with our goals.”

Achieving those goals doesn’t come without the assistance of crucial sponsorship and those interested in helping Team Kaitlyn Jones on their quest can inquire with them at kjonescurling@gmail.com.