Life: On the Rocks

A little over a week ago I was about to start the biggest tournament of my life - the 2018 Ontario Scotties Tournament of Hearts. Considering that I've been curling for 22 years, that is a little embarrassing to admit, but then I think back on the hiatus  and I try to remember that everything happens for a reason. I suppose I should have been nervous for this tournament, but I wasn't. I felt ready . I liked the way I was throwing in practice, my fitness levels were good, and my diet had me feeling fueled and energized. Mentally, I was focused. All of the usual catastrophes in my personal life had been managed. Everything I had worked for, everything my team had worked for was right there in front of us and it was all ours for the taking.  After the team meetings, after the practices, after the banquet, after the opening ceremonies, after the speeches, we were ready to play and we came out firing. If we had been able to play the way we played in our first game for t...

People ask me all the time how curling teams are formed. I know that in many other competitive sports players are scouted, invited to training camps, evaluated on their skills, then placed into teams by a governing body and awarded contracts. In curling - at least in Canadian curling - the process usually goes something more like this: "Hey, what are you doing next year? Are you interested in putting a team together?" "Sure, let's go for a drink and talk about it." On the Ontario Curling Tour, you end up playing in tournaments with the same people multiple times per season so we all get to know each other pretty well. We're Facebook friends, real-life friends, competitors, former teammates, mortal enemies... Everyone has some form of a relationship with everyone else. I knew who Chrissy Cadorin was, but the first time we said more than "good game" to each other during handshakes was one evening in the winter of 2015 in front of the Listowel ...

By the end of my Junior curling career, I had competed in five Ontario Provincial Championships, three OUA Championships, one CIS Championship, and was an OCAA Champion. I won three varsity curling MVP awards from my high school and one in my freshman year in University. In my third year I won a coach-nominated award for my outstanding contribution to the overall athletic program at Trent University. I was not the most decorated curler in my age group, but I had always been a top contender in the Ottawa area. In addition to my curling career, I was a competitive softball pitcher, a competitive soccer player, and was ranked 4th in Ottawa for 1500m track. I played on the A-squad for my middle school's basketball team and while I never tried out for the touch football team I can throw a mean spiral. Gym class was my favourite period and I spent my recesses in grade school playing tennis ball foot hockey in the alley with the boys. I was a jock who preferred to spend my weekends cano...

I can not begin to count the number of times I have said that I'm going to quit curling. "Curling is stupid and I'm quitting." I've said it after losses that should have been wins, after tough emotional losses, when I have to sacrifice time with friends and family, and sometimes just when I'm tired. Of course, I never really mean it, but there have been a handful of times when I have seriously considered retiring my broom for good.  The first time I even suggested the idea of quitting curling happened when I was in little rocks. Similar to the time when I announced my dislike for gymnastics, I waited until I got home with my parents after the last game of the season and casually said, "I don't think I want to curl next year". My dad just looked at me as if I had told him that I didn't think the Earth was round. When September came around that year I found myself back on the ice.  The second time I wanted to quit the sport I love happen...

I competed in my first Provincial Championship when I was 15 years old. I had received a phone call from Jaimee Gardner early in the 2002/2003 season where she asked if I would be interested in playing second for her. She already had commitments from Katie Morrissey to play vice and Karen Sagle to play lead and they thought I would be a good fit to fill out the squad. I quickly accepted her offer, even though I had never played second before. I knew that the opportunity was too good to turn down over something as silly as inexperience at a front end position. Coached by the late Michael Moore, our team qualified through our zone and regional playdowns for the 2003 Bantam (now called U18) Provincials at our home club, Carleton Heights Curling Club in Ottawa, Ontario. Mike was the first coach I ever played for who was not a parent of anyone on the team, but he treated all of us as if we were his own kids. He would pick me up at my house and drive me to practice, taking a genuine intere...

When I was four years old I started going to kindergarten at Churchill School in Ottawa, Ontario. The kindergartners had their own playground separate from the "big kids", but since my sister was in an older grade, I would sneak over to their yard see her all the time. The teachers didn't seem to mind, but they would keep an eye on me all the same. One of my sister's friends, a boy who was three years older than me, would always play fight with me. I'd come at him with my tiny fists and weak little toddler arms and he would act like I was actually hurting him. He made me feel cool and tough in front of all the other big kids and I loved the attention he gave me. Then one day he didn't come to school. When I couldn't find him I figured that everyone in the big kids yard knew our game and would play along with me in the same way. I punched another boy, but he did not pretend like I had hurt him. He did not clutch his arm and say "Owwwww you got me!...