How Christina Black Builds A Winning Curling Team

You can learn a lot about high performance by listening to someone who lives in the details, and Christina Black lives there. Over pints at Jungle Jim’s, we talk with the Nova Scotia skip about how an eight-year-old in Sydney goes from watching the Scotties on TV to hearing an arena roar at the Olympic Trials in Halifax, and what that kind of pressure feels like when it’s finally real.

We get into the parts of curling casual fans miss: why the game is closer to chess than most sports, how a skip balances analytics with instinct, and how one mistake can open the door to a three with the five rock rule in play. Christina breaks down film study, opponent scouting, and endgame decision-making, including how teams think about hammer, forcing, and when to protect against the “hero shot” that can swing an entire match.

Team chemistry is a full storyline too. Christina explains how Team Black formed, what it took to recruit longtime rival Jill Brothers, and why the right mix of roles, communication, and energy can matter as much as pure shot-making. We also talk about the World Curling Tour, bonspiels, ranking points, and where to find streams and schedules if you want more curling in your life than just the Olympics.

If you care about Canadian curling, the Scotties Tournament of Hearts, Olympic Trials, or simply how elite competitors keep their heads clear, this one delivers. Subscribe, share this with a curling fan, and leave a review with the biggest takeaway you’re stealing for your own game or your own life.

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Transcript

Cheers And Meet Christina Black

SPEAKER_03 0:14

Cheers!

SPEAKER_02 0:15

Cheers! Cheers!

SPEAKER_03 0:17

Welcome to the afternoon pint. I am Matt Conrad.

SPEAKER_02 0:20

And I am Tim Anjovies, Mike Lexicony.

SPEAKER_03 0:23

Alright, and who do we have here?

SPEAKER_00 0:24

And I'm Christina Black.

SPEAKER_03 0:26

Christina Black? That name sounds familiar.

SPEAKER_00 0:29

Just a dad.

SPEAKER_03 0:31

You've heard my uh co-host of the day is sounding a little different. Tim's been on the podcast before. Guest hosting out of a special request because he got Christina here.

SPEAKER_02 0:42

So he was like It wasn't all me. You gotta give a little shout out to Maria Miller. That's Christina's cousin, and my wife's Maria. Big thanks to Maria for reaching out to Christina to get her on.

SPEAKER_03 0:52

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 0:53

So thank you for coming.

SPEAKER_00 0:54

Oh, you're welcome. I'm really happy to be here. Thanks for asking me. Maria's like, it's Tim's cousin. I was like, oh, then I'd love to do it.

unknown 1:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:03

There you go. So just before we kind of get into why everyone knows your name, is uh we're here at Jungle Gyms. We're sitting here chipping on some beers. They're always very welcoming the host, and yeah, so we absolutely love the fact that we're here. So why don't you tell everybody how they should know you?

SPEAKER_00 1:21

Well, if you're a curling fan or a casual curling watcher, you may have seen me um playing in the Scotty's Tournament of Hearts a number of times over the last few years, or in the Olympic trials this past year, which was at the Scotiabank Center in Halifax where my team competed there. So hopefully lots of people came out and uh were watching because it was an awesome time.

SPEAKER_03 1:44

Pretty exciting. You went to like what two matches?

SPEAKER_02 1:47

I went to three.

SPEAKER_03 1:47

Three matches, okay. Alright, there you go. Yeah, you get the shirt on here. You got your number one fan over here.

SPEAKER_00 1:53

Yeah, it's awesome.

SPEAKER_03 1:54

Yeah, exactly. He started the fan club.

SPEAKER_02 1:57

Christina's family actually made these really awesome shirts, and a couple of them say always been on black with like a casino chip. And then another set of shirts say had like the a little curling stone and says black magic. Oh, nice, okay.

SPEAKER_00 2:13

Yeah, we had quite the crew supporting us, so many family members and friends, and then they all, you know, started wearing wearing shirts so you could see them in the crowd, which was amazing, just to be able to spot your spot your fans and and be able to point them out and look over and wave. And it was it was pretty awesome.

SPEAKER_01 2:30

Very cool.

SPEAKER_00 2:31

I think even just random other people who were not part of the family would stop them and be like, Where'd you get that shirt? Like, I want to get one.

SPEAKER_03 2:39

Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:40

We gotta Maria could have made some profit.

SPEAKER_03 2:43

Yeah, seriously, she should be selling them. Probably have to share a little bit with Christina though.

SPEAKER_02 2:48

Probably, you know. I was looking at all the merchandise at when I was at the trials there, and I was like, Man, you guys gotta see these shirts about always been on black and the black mid. Yeah, that was cool.

SPEAKER_03 3:00

Everyone, you know, when the Olympics come around, I honestly truly only watch the curling and the hockey.

SPEAKER_00 3:04

Nice.

SPEAKER_03 3:05

That's it. Right? Male, female, curling, hockey. That's really but if we if we come home with four gold medals and it's those four, like I'm that's pretty much all I'm really I'm like, ah, we're good, right? So I really like curling, but how does you know a young girl in in Sydney fall in love with curling?

Falling In Love With Curling

SPEAKER_00 3:24

Yeah, for me, I mean, a lot of people usually get into it because their parents curl or something, so they're brought, or an older sibling or something, so they're brought into the club. But for me, my mom is a huge sports fan. Like she watches all the sports, everything. So growing up, you know, I watched them, they'd be on TV. So I'm at home, there's all this stuff on, and I loved watching curling with her. I remember sitting at home, you know, during the Scotty's Tournament of Hearts would be in February, and the Briar a lot of times was over March break, and so I'd be watching all this curling. And then I said, Can little kids like me do that? And she's like, Yeah, I I think so. And I was like, I want to do it, can I do it? And she's like, All right, you know, I think every year around the start of the school year, there's an ad in the paper about you know registration for junior curling, and we'll sign you up. So I did not forget, and you know, six months later or whatever, when October rolled around and the curling club's opening up again. My dad took me in to sign me up, and I remember at the Sydney Curling Club, it was$20 for the year. That was it. It was$20. You didn't need equipment, nothing. It was just show up and you joined junior curling, and they told them they looked at me, and I was at that point, I didn't even weigh 40 pounds. Like I didn't even weigh how old were you again, sorry? I was eight. Eight years old. Yeah, almost nine. So I didn't even weigh the same amount that the rocks weigh, right? So I think they looked at me and thought, oh, this kid, I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 4:49

You could be a broom.

SPEAKER_00 4:50

They they were like, don't pay yet, you know. Let's see if uh she likes it. But I loved it right away.

SPEAKER_02 4:56

So there was nobody else like your age there?

SPEAKER_00 4:58

Like, oh no, there's other kids, like there's a junior program, yeah, but I was pretty, you know, pretty small for my age, too. Yeah. So it took uh it took me a few months. I think it took till about Christmas before I could even get the rock all the way down the sheet. Okay, yeah. But I stuck with it. Like I was determined that I wanted to be on TV curling. Like I wanted to be like those people I saw on TV, yeah, right from before I ever started. So it's like I'm gonna do that, I'm gonna figure this out.

SPEAKER_03 5:27

That's so cool. Cause I mean, like, oftentimes, I mean, I have a four and a half year old, and like he says he wants to do things. I mean, he's also four, so I mean, whatever, right? But like, you know, it's really cool that you had a goal and were just like this is what I'm gonna do, and you did it. Yeah, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 5:41

Yeah, I did it.

SPEAKER_02 5:42

Yeah. When you first started chucking rocks down the ice, you actually like enjoyed it and everything.

SPEAKER_00 5:47

I loved it right from the first moment, and just like the smell when you went out there. Yeah, it just every year still, when I go back at the start of the new season, that's one of my favorite things is the smell of the arena because you kind of forget and then you go in, and it's just something special about it. But yeah, right from the start, you know, and there was other kids, and the older kids helped teach the younger ones, and um just so there's people to look at to try and emulate too in Sydney. Like we had a great group of of kids there, and yeah, some really good curlers have come out of there too.

SPEAKER_03 6:21

It seems like a really like non-toxic community sport. And maybe you can tell me otherwise, but it seems that way. Like club curling clubs seem to really kind of band together.

SPEAKER_00 6:33

Yeah, and I mean I've I've moved around the province a few times in my adulthood, like with work and stuff. And no matter what community I went to, it's like I could join the curling club and immediately meet nice people and have people that will be your friends and kind of look after you too. So you can always find this just like great group at the curling club.

SPEAKER_01 6:53

And it's cool.

SPEAKER_00 6:54

And I've worked a lot with some of the younger people and like younger juniors and stuff too. And I don't know, there's something about us curlers, like the kids are all really nice and they're smart and they're hardworking, and it's like a yeah, uh I think it's something you learn just from having to work in a small sport too. Yeah. It's like a smaller team sport.

SPEAKER_03 7:11

Well, curling's hard. Like I don't think people realize it. I think like when they look at it, they're just like, I can chuck a rock jump ice, right?

SPEAKER_02 7:17

Well, that's what I was gonna ask you is like, did you find it really difficult when you first started, or were you like naturally gifted in it right from the get-go?

SPEAKER_00 7:25

I think I was like naturally pretty good.

SPEAKER_02 7:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:27

Yeah. I mean, obviously it took a long time to get very good, but I had some natural ability right away, and so that makes it easier to like something too. But yeah, it's not as easy as as it looks, but that's because when you watch it on TV, those people are really good and they've put in a ton of time and effort practicing at their sport. Absolutely so it looks simple, but it's not.

SPEAKER_02 7:49

I don't think it looks simple myself. I think it looks impossible.

SPEAKER_03 7:53

I think like an untrained eye, people would just look at it in a in a simple sense, right? But then when you really kind of look at like how long the ice is, the fact that you're actually like trying to actually get a rock to curl in or curl out, and like sometimes really weave it between other rocks to kind of get it or and and to get you know, you have to get those right angles that kind of bounce it the way you want, so that you're not gonna hit other rocks, like you're hitting with precision. So it's like I kind of think it's the same as football in a way, right? A lot of people look at football and they're just like, oh, that's just a stupid sport. But there's a lot of actual like chess match type of strategy that goes into football, very similar to like curling, where it's like you have to know how to place it, you have to know how to piece it, and I mean you have to plan to try to win, you know, you have to take sometimes three stone to catch up, and when it seems like it's no hope, you you can pull it off sometimes, right?

SPEAKER_00 8:48

Yeah, there's like the strategy, right? So you're planning a few moves ahead. Yeah. You know, you have to be able to see, okay, how am I gonna develop this end the way I want it to, and where do I need to put my rocks to be able to have this opportunity to score a multiple points or a steal or whatever your goal might be for that end. But it's yeah, it's not just you know up and down, simple. And to make the shots, there's so much precision involved, like you said. Like there's so much detail to make something actually perfect. Yeah, you can go up there and just like chuck the rock and see where it ends up, but no, when you're actually good, you want it to be right in that exact spot. Because if it's not, the other team's gonna make you pay. Right.

SPEAKER_03 9:31

So that's the thing. Anytime I've I I I like I can't curl, right? Like I've tried and I've I've I do it a couple times. Like the insurance industry has like, yeah, like go for fun. Yeah, we go for fun, we we have a whole day of it, but you know what? I should actually bring you out sometime on like our team, just like a huge ringer. Like, yeah, we're gonna win this thing, right? But I I I go out there, like I like if you want to clear rocks, I'm your guy. I can send it barreling down, I can clear the whole thing. But I have tried to get it to like curl. I mean, I can do it like almost like if you're bowling, I can get it to go in the gutter right away, kind of thing. But yeah, I it's it's hard. It's really hard. All I can I can basically send it down straight, and that's pretty much as good as I can do. So yeah. Anyway.

SPEAKER_00 10:15

My other cousin, Jason Barrett, who Timmy knows. Oh, yeah, he's a loser. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. He always says to me, he's like, I don't understand why you don't just take out all the rocks every time. Like, take four of them out. You should just do that every time. I'm like, well, that's not really gonna help, potentially. That's not necessarily what the best option is.

SPEAKER_02 10:35

Well, and you know, they did institute the five rock rules. Well, I was gonna say there's a rule against defense. Yeah. But that's three guard zone, all that kind of stuff. You can't just hawk them down there and like.

SPEAKER_00 10:46

But some people might think, why don't they just do that? Why don't they just blow it up every time? But that's not necessarily gonna help you score enough points. Right. Right? Like it's no good if you just get one.

SPEAKER_03 10:57

Well, then because then you're just doing one-one one-one each time, and then it ends up five-five every game. So, Jason, you're an idiot.

SPEAKER_02 11:30

The the five rock rule was instituted because of Jason Barry watching.

SPEAKER_03 11:36

So, yeah, okay, so as we kind of go further on, like, when did you realize, like, okay, no, I'm good, good.

SPEAKER_00 11:45

I don't I don't know. I don't know. It's um I'm pretty humble, but I think it was just like I loved it. I just loved the sport and I always want to be better. So I still just want to be better. Yeah. So it's I'm just ever since I was little, just striving to be the best curler, you know. So it's just what do I have to do and the work to put in. And because I enjoy it, yeah, it's easy to do that. That's fair. Like I like it, right? So um yeah, I think I just kind of just like I'm I'm pretty good. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 12:21

Yeah. Well, I mean, you had to obviously start like winning things, right? And then, you know, winning, at least in this province, winning a lot of things, right, at some point in order to get where you got.

SPEAKER_00 12:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 12:35

I mean, we had, you know, rest in peace, we had Colleen Jones, who kind of like paved the way I feel. And you like, you know, for a lot of women curlers and curlers in general, who was just like awesome, like legend, right? And it's funny because like I think now it's like because she's been out of the game for so long. I don't know if like people really fully recognize her. Like, I think we kind of like should have really gave her a really good hurrah, I guess, on the like in her last bit. Because I remember watching her and it seemed like she was just unbeatable. Like for at least a solid like 10 years.

SPEAKER_01 13:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:09

Yeah. Right? So watching her, like I that she must have been some sort of inspiration to you.

SPEAKER_00 13:15

Oh, absolutely. You know, she was my idol. Yeah. From you know, watching her growing up, first off, being a fan of curling, and like, okay, she was almost always going for Nova Scotia to the Scotty. So I was like, wow, this is amazing, you know, who is this? And you'd watch and cheer for her um in the mid-90s, but they they wouldn't they weren't winning at that point. And then 1999, yeah, um, the Scotties were in Charlottetown, and I went and watched. Oh cool. So yeah, that was my first time getting to go watch curling in person, which was very amazing.

SPEAKER_03 13:46

At that level, at least.

SPEAKER_00 13:48

Yeah, yeah, not just at the curling. But yeah, to watch like the Scotties live.

SPEAKER_01 13:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:53

And watch them get on a roll, and they were winning and winning, and then they won the whole thing. And I was like, oh my god, this is amazing. And then they became just my favorite team. I followed every game they ever played, you know, watched them all, videoed them on videotape and re-watched the games to just try and learn what I could to be like them. You know, I just wanted to learn that, and that's because they were from here. So as a kid from Nova Scotia, I just wanted to be like her and see what I could do. And as I got older and and then got to actually know them and and learn from them. Yeah. Um it was pretty, pretty amazing.

SPEAKER_03 14:35

They say not to meet your idols. Was it was you know, was was it okay meeting your idols? Oh yeah, yeah. I've always worried about that. Like there's certain people you don't want to meet and because you're just like like I don't want to meet like Bret Hart, you know, because you just never know. I mean, I do, but you know, sometimes you don't want to.

SPEAKER_00 14:52

Definitely, definitely worth it and amazing for me to have have that uh opportunity to get to learn from her and from her whole team.

SPEAKER_03 15:01

Yeah. Yeah, like yeah, uh invaluable knowledge everything, right? So the okay, so it must have like it did you guys ever actually I'm trying to think, like, did you guys ever actually play against each other in like a high-level tournament?

SPEAKER_00 15:17

Yeah, you know, she well for a couple of years I for almost 10 years actually, I played with Marianne Arsenal. We used to play with Colleen. Yep. And and then Colleen, uh, they were still competing, you know, for a few years there in the Scotties. One of our provincial wins, we beat them in the final, which was really hard to go play because I'm like, I've never rooted against her before in my life. And now I need to hope she loses because it means like I need to win. Right. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_03 15:46

That's the thing. It's like you're like, yeah, you kind of it's it's kind of like you know, you grow up a Leaves fan and all of a sudden you're playing for the Canadians, right?

SPEAKER_00 15:52

Yeah. So you're like, oh, I can't be similar. I can't, you know, think about that. Because if I do, I'm not gonna play my best because I'm gonna be hoping they do better than me. But no, I need to go out there and out curl her.

SPEAKER_03 16:03

Yeah. Not an easy task. No. No. It wouldn't be an easy task. I mean, you know, it's and it's one of those things where you're like yeah, yeah, you really have to be so cerebral. But going back to what you said, I I think this kind of speaks to people who are truly great at what they do, in the sporting world at least. But you said that you blow back, you re-watch things, and you know, you wanted to learn and see and know everything. But that I think is part of greatness. You know, I'm a big Tom Brady fan, big New England Patriots fan, and he was always the first one in, last one out watching film. Right? Watching what his opponent is doing, learning from them, seeing what they're doing right, what they're doing wrong, how he can find weaknesses and what they're good at. Like, that and it sounds like that's what you were doing. Is there any is there ever a point where you let like the analytics cloud your mind at all, or maybe you overthink in that stuff? Like when you look at like oh what I should do versus what your gut is telling you?

SPEAKER_00 17:01

Yeah, I tr I try not to, because there is so much analytics now.

SPEAKER_01 17:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:06

And curling's gotten big into it in the last few years with stats and when you should score, and you know, what end should you try and have hammer to score, like what you know, different things like that. And like I watch lots of games and I analyze different plays and what works for different teams, but I also just love to follow my gut because it's got a pretty good gut to work for the game and how things are going. Like you can't always go by the book because sometimes games just are going a little differently, you know? It just depends on on the day. So it's important for me um to really trust my feel and and my gut in a lot of instances. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 17:49

Yeah. It's it's it's funny because like when I was kind of putting together this this episode, I asked Chat GPT. Just was like, who are the top five skips in Canada? And it was you. You were listed as a top five skip in Canada. Nice according to ChatGPT.

SPEAKER_00 18:12

Let's go.

SPEAKER_03 18:13

Right? That's a pretty cool thing though, eh? Like, you know, young girl in Sydney ends up being like a number like top five. And I mean, it's not like you're the top five skip in like, you know, from I don't know, Latvia, right? Like you're the top five skip in, you know, a powerhouse of a of a curling nation, kind of thing. That's pretty awesome.

Building A Team From Rivals

SPEAKER_00 18:52

Yeah, like you asked me when did you know you were good? And it's just like yeah, it's kind of nice now to get that recognition. I think I always kind of knew and just to to get that now, and it just feels good because we deserve it, I think. And uh, but it is pretty cool to think, yeah, like I am good, I'm one of the top skips in the country, and you know, we have one of the best teams in the country. Yeah. Um but we've put in a lot of work to get there too.

SPEAKER_03 19:20

And yeah, and that's the other thing too, is like how do you like how did you put together your team?

SPEAKER_00 19:27

Well, um my current team, uh my third Jill Brothers. So for a long time we were uh enemies. I know, but we were rivals, really. She was the skip of the next the other good team in Nova Scotia, basically. So for years it would either be a team I was on or a team she was on that was gonna win. She's been really successful, and then I knew when the trials were announced to come to Halifax, like I want to be there. I want to give Nova Scotia the best team possible to go and and make a run at this thing. So I just had to convince Jill to come play with me. So uh yeah, so convinced Jill like come join my team, you know, like this is time, it's time for us to to do this, and thankfully she agreed. And mega powers. Yeah, so let's join together and make like a super team, basically.

SPEAKER_02 20:22

Yeah. Were you guys friends in at the time?

SPEAKER_00 20:26

Well, not really, no, because we had only ever played against each other. So we didn't really know each other beyond that very much, other than being competitors. Like I played with her sister num back in juniors, so I knew her family a little bit, but really we just we're competitors. So she'll say, Wow, I didn't realize how much how much we actually have in common and how much we get along, and yeah, we we get along really well. And yeah, we're very similar, I think.

SPEAKER_03 20:53

So, how'd you find the others on your team? How do you assemble, like, how do you assemble a good curling team? Because you all have different responsibilities.

SPEAKER_00 21:02

Yeah, and you need to find the right people for the right positions. So, and our team is changing a little bit coming up this next year.

SPEAKER_03 21:09

Yeah, there was an announcement. We can we can talk about that in a minute, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:13

But so like the next member on the team is Marley Powers, and Marley joined the team at the same time as Jill, and we brought her in because we needed to have like a fifth person, really, in order to be able to go play in all of the events we wanted to play in. And I had again, we played against Marley Lotts, and I had seen her practicing a ton over like that year, and thought, you know, she's an athlete. Like that girl like played volleyball for Dal, and she's really, really strong and athletic, and had gotten you know, I'd seen her putting a lot of work into the game, and she'd really gotten good. So got her to join the team, which is awesome, and she's been a great addition. Lucky to have her.

SPEAKER_01 21:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:55

And then Carly, Carly started curling together after Marianne moved away and I took over skipping. I knew I was gonna be my first time kind of skipping at that level, and I I was like, okay, I need to have someone who's got a lot of energy, because sometimes I can be in my head too much and and thinking too hard. So I was like, we need someone who's gonna just make sure to keep things a little bit like just give us that energy we need. I had played against Carly for years, and she drove me crazy playing against her because she had so much energy. So on the opposite team, you're like, oh my god, that girl, like, she never stops.

SPEAKER_03 22:34

She's like a red Martana girl.

SPEAKER_00 22:37

So I was like, she's gonna be perfect to play with. Yeah. So we brought her in, I mean, yeah, in 2020. And yeah, we've been playing together since then. And then we've got a new member joining us this year, too, coming up. So Lindsay Burgess is gonna join us uh because Carly's gonna be on maternity leave, so she's gonna have another baby. Yeah, exciting for her and her family.

SPEAKER_01 23:00

Really congrats again. Yeah, congratulations.

SPEAKER_00 23:02

So Lindsay and Marley played together a couple of years ago.

SPEAKER_01 23:06

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 23:06

And Lindsay is a great young player, like one of the top young players in the country, and really strong sweeper. And she spent the last two years in Edmonton curling out there. But she's originally from uh like the Hilden area, just like outside Churro. So she's really excited now to come home. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:25

And that's that's Carly Burgess's cousin. Yes. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 23:29

So her cousin Carly is, you know, one of the top curlers in the country. So they're a they're a curling powerhouse, the Burgess family in Nova Scotia. They're like the curling royalty.

SPEAKER_03 23:39

Okay. Curling royalty.

SPEAKER_00 23:41

Yeah. All right. All right.

SPEAKER_03 23:44

Well, I mean, so yeah, so and we talked we talked about how you get to go against uh Colleen Jones and and and beat her, but you also some may argue the top curler in in Canada right now is Holman. And you actually get to beat her as well.

SPEAKER_01 24:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 24:00

So like what is that like? I mean, you you know, you were right there. Like, you get a shot of like being at the Olympics, right? Like, we could talk a little bit about that and you know how you guys can b battle it out. Like, what do you see? Like, how do you feel you're gonna topple the Holman Tower kind of thing?

SPEAKER_00 24:18

Yeah, they're incredible, and they've had such a good run the last couple of years. Really changed the game and just how good you need to be and how precise at every position and in every aspect of the game, and they're always getting better. So it's like to chase them down, you have to do that too. Really look at every aspect and how you can do it. But it's just also not thinking that they're n unbeatable.

SPEAKER_01 24:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:45

So it's just approaching them like any other team and just playing your game. It's just like any good team, you're only gonna win if if you're able to bring your best and and uh capitalize on any opportunities you get.

SPEAKER_03 24:59

Yeah. Well it sounds like you're making some moves. Uh you know, you're bringing, you know, really kind of bringing, you know, different teammates in to maybe see, you know, maybe see what they can bring. If it's because it's not always about necessarily like someone's better than someone, it's also sometimes about like how people match up, right? Yeah. And sometimes it's about like, you know, when you have people kind of going one-on-one. Like do you do you look at it as like when you look at the game, do you look at it as a sense that like you're you're like as you go from one to four, do you look at it as those two are battling it out, or do you look at it as like, no, we're a team and we have to play all four together? Or is it like one v one, two v two, or one v1, two v2, three v v like? Like how do you how do you see the game?

SPEAKER_00 25:46

Yeah, sometimes definitely we will say before a game, okay, like man-to-man defense. Okay. Just like you would in basketball, right? Like, oh curl your counterpart, basically.

SPEAKER_01 25:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:56

But every shot still requires the team's help. So like everyone with curling, you know, right from the skip calling, giving the right ice to the sweepers making the right judgment on the shot to giving the right information to the thrower. So like every shot is a it requires team collaboration to make it to the best of the ability that you can. But yeah, we'll look at it sometimes and be like, yeah, man-to-man defense. Okay. Because at least if you can outcurl the other person, you know, you're probably at least in a better position at that point. Um down the road kind of thing. Yeah, because yeah.

SPEAKER_03 26:31

Okay. It's just interesting. I always kind of thought like if I was good at curling, I always thought like, how did how do good people at curling view this? Kind of thing, right? Yeah, we'll say that, but I'm not good, so I'm just kind of like, I'm just gonna throw the rocket and you know.

SPEAKER_00 26:45

But you could have your first three players curl 100% and then me as the skip have a terrible game and and still lose by a lot, right?

SPEAKER_03 26:54

So fair, fair. You can make a mistake, that happens. Yeah. That's true. All the pressure's on the skip.

SPEAKER_00 27:01

Yeah, but then you also as as the skip, if your front three play bad, or even just if your lead isn't having a good game and setting up the end good for you, you're gonna be chasing the rest of your play, the other three of you are gonna be chasing on your shots, and you're probably gonna have a tough time to win that game. So it's like everyone's role is really important. Um, yeah.

Nova Scotia’s Curling Revival

SPEAKER_03 27:24

So would you agree with the statement that Nova Scotia is good at curling again?

SPEAKER_00 27:30

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 27:31

So, yeah, because like it seemed like we were amazing uh because of a you know, a legend in Colleen Jones. And it like it felt like we took a bit of a dip for a little bit there, but it seems like we're like good again. Right? We had two teams recently, right? Like, there was like two Nova Scotia teams, and what was the tournament? I can't remember. The one and the ones you were at. Was it the one you were at? No, no. Or was it the one after there was one where there was two Nova Scotia teams? That was the Scotties. Okay, the Scotties. It was the Scotties.

SPEAKER_02 28:00

I couldn't remember, yeah. So we had two Nova Scotia teams. First time in 21 years that two Nova Scotia teams went to the Scotties, yeah, and the first time ever that they made it to the playoffs. And they played against each other. I know, I was kind of hoping it'd be Nova Scotia versus Nova Scotia. It was awesome, it was really awesome. And yeah, so for all those people out there that who don't know, that other team is a skip by Taylor Stevens, and she has had a really phenomenal year, and what a performance in the Scotties. Like she stepped up like you wouldn't believe, like that was amazing.

SPEAKER_00 28:35

Yeah, it was awesome to watch them, you know, in their first Scotties and to do so well. And we were like one of my most proud things that I've accomplished over the last couple years is doing well enough to have a second team get to go to the Scotties.

SPEAKER_01 28:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:53

Because that was just such a cool thing to be able to do for the for the province for curling and to give it another opportunity for for a second team, and then for both of us to do really well just shows okay, it's not just you know, there's depth, you know, there's there's depth there in the province.

SPEAKER_03 29:10

Which is it's great, it actually is really cool to see again, right? To see that we're gonna be standing kind of up for the country, and then like I know I know the Olympics are just recently over and a while away, but it would be awesome to see Nova Scotia represent like Team Canada. But speaking of that though, how come we don't see like mega teams come together for for the Olympics? Like, why are they not taking like you and Holman and things like that and just being like throwing mega teams together and just being like, we're gonna pick the five best people in the whole country and just like why aren't they doing that?

SPEAKER_02 29:47

They don't have a lot of experience playing with one another, so that's that's true, but neither do hockey players. That's a that's true.

SPEAKER_03 29:54

I know it's true, it's why I said it.

SPEAKER_00 29:56

Yeah, but hockey, there's so many more people on the team.

SPEAKER_03 29:59

That's true. Yeah, right? That's fair. That's true. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:02

So with curling at such a small team, you have to really have that right chemistry and trust in your teammates, and you're together so much. You know, some other countries will will do that, but then still that team's playing together for a long time. Canada is we're lucky that we have lots of teams and lots of great players. So we are able to still kind of have your own team and and work together to win.

SPEAKER_03 30:30

Well, I mean that's makes a lot of sense. It's I mean, and I'm sure there is like when you are a country like Canada, US, like Sweden and Norway and things like that, where and like, you know, in some cases the UK and things like that, where curling is a part of their culture. Well they they have a lot of people. Scotland. Yeah, exactly, right?

SPEAKER_02 30:48

To make the stones.

SPEAKER_03 30:49

Yeah, exactly. So it's like they the we have so many good people and so many good teams. I'm sure, like, you know, if it is Latvia, I'm sure they have to kind of put together some of the best in order to even compete.

SPEAKER_00 31:00

Well, yeah, and even all of those other countries that you mentioned, they don't have very many teams. There's only like one or two teams. And so then that's why they don't re they'll they'll just select a team to go to the Olympics. Really? Or to the worlds in some of the instances. Because they just don't have have the uh yeah, yeah. The population's lower, the amount of facilities is lower, it's just not as popular. Like you go to Norway, most people ski and stuff. Like that's where they rack up their medals. So that's where their money's goes.

SPEAKER_03 31:33

There's like what, nine million people in Norway or something? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:35

When they win the most medals in the Winter Olympics, but they rack them up in like skiing and I don't know. Yeah. So then that's probably where their money goes from their government. It's not really going to curling.

SPEAKER_03 31:48

Fair.

SPEAKER_00 31:49

So then they only have a few curlers that uh curl at a high level.

SPEAKER_03 31:54

How's it like with the United States though? Because they have obviously have a population ten times greater than us, but like do they have similar type of setups? Like, I don't watch a lot of American curlers, right? So like I don't know what it looks like. Do they have tournaments, like qualifying tournaments and things like that, like we do?

SPEAKER_00 32:10

Yeah, they have tournaments like a nationals like we do, and they have Olympic trials, but there's less teams. Yeah. Less overall curlers and just less facilities.

SPEAKER_03 32:20

Interesting.

SPEAKER_00 32:21

You know, less of their more, I guess, most of the people down more southern, you know, there's not gonna be as many curling clubs, that sort of thing. But they definitely have they have curling clubs and quite a few curlers, but it there's an opportunity there for it to grow in popularity since there is so much population.

SPEAKER_01 32:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:42

You know, to get more curling clubs, get more people interested, to get it on TV more in the United States, besides just at the Olympics. And then that would help grow the sport there.

SPEAKER_03 32:52

And like just so like because anyone watching, because we always see like the Scotties and Olympic trials, and like there's uh you know, there's international tournaments and things like that and the Olympics and stuff. I'm trying to even remember what it was that I watched, because there was an international tournament here in like 2014, I think it was. 2014.

SPEAKER_00 33:13

2015, the men's worlds were here.

SPEAKER_03 33:15

That's what it was. So I actually watched, it was awesome. I had box seats for that.

SPEAKER_00 33:19

Oh, fine.

Bonspiels, Rankings, And Where To Watch

SPEAKER_03 33:20

It was really fun. You went to it live, did you? Went to it live. I didn't know box seats, the corner one, which was the big one. Sit and so and it's also a little bit lower, so you're like a little bit closer to the ice, you're not way, way, way up. So it was like, you know, free beer and free wings and curl. It was awesome. I sat there the whole day and just like watched, and so it was really, really cool. But it's like, you know, all of these, but are there if I mean because I don't even really fully know this. I mean, I know there's like tournaments and stuff like that, but are there regular tournaments that you can go in, like your team can go in and compete? Like to kind of obviously because you gotta play a lot and obviously to be good. Like, so are there tournaments that you guys are entering in that you guys can win that you know, yeah, like any other sport there would be kind of thing?

SPEAKER_00 34:07

Yeah, for sure. So we call them Bond Spiels. Bond spiels, yeah. Yeah, a Bond spiel. Yep. So there's Bond Spiels pretty much every weekend across the country, there's multiple going on, and so it's called the World Curling Tour. So teams come and predominantly the tournaments are in Canada. So there's a lot here. So a lot of teams come from all over the world to compete in different tournaments, and when you get in the playoffs, like depending on how you do, you get points called uh world curling like ranking points.

SPEAKER_03 34:39

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:40

Kind of like tennis and so you get those points, and then you're ranked in the world, and the top teams get that's how they get invited to the bigger tournaments that are grand slams or grand slam of curling. And so then yeah, and then you also use those points to pre-qualify for things like the Scotty to the Briar. That's how you get into the Olympic trials is a lot based on those points. So you have to go to these tournaments in order to earn the points to make it to different events.

SPEAKER_03 35:11

So and if people want to learn more about curling and watch more live curling, how do they find that stuff out? Where do they find out where these tournaments are?

SPEAKER_00 35:19

And you know, well, I'll show out one of the greatest curling websites of all time, curlingzone.com, and that's where you get all of the info for like events schedules. They post the scores for like every game live scoring, and also links to YouTube links or wherever it might be located to watch streaming. So a lot of events you can watch on on YouTube or different streaming platforms depending on the event. Yeah, yeah. And there's always games to watch. Like I watch old games on YouTube all the time.

SPEAKER_03 35:53

Okay, going back, you know what? Like I I do that with football. 100%. Go back, watch old Super Bowls or really great games and things like that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:01

I got some of my old favorites. You can't sleep or something, put on a game.

SPEAKER_03 36:05

Okay, then I'm gonna I gotta ask you. Like, so like what's your go-to, like favorite curling match that's not yours, that's like you like, okay, this is my go-to.

SPEAKER_00 36:15

Oh, oh, there's so many. There's so many good ones. Oh dear.

SPEAKER_03 36:22

Think about it, because I mean, I I can tell you like for Super Bowls, obviously for me, it's when the Patriots came back when they were down 28 and 3. And I love watching that game because I know what the end result, and I know my team was winning, because uh during that game I was ready to like murder somebody. But happy that I stuck it out, and I love going back and watching it because I can like relive that moment of like, oh my god, there was this is the greatest upset in football history. And or not upset, but comeback. Yeah, and like I do go back, I'd say probably once a year, I watch that game. Once a year, just on YouTube and watch it. So I mean, I don't know, there must be a game that's like your go-to.

SPEAKER_00 36:59

So I I like to just watch all different ones and just pick random ones to watch. But I mean there's some really good classics, and you can watch like so I like to watch old Colleen Jones games because I just love those ones, but I do like to pick ones where she wins because the other ones make me sad still. But the Briar Final when Mark Daisy won, that game is a classic. Even just to go back and watch the 10th end. Yeah, yeah. That was unbelievable, so that's a great one to watch. Yeah, there's some some really good ones out there, and just pull up random games. I don't care, I'll just stick it on, and then I just like to listen to the commentary.

SPEAKER_03 37:40

How much of the commentary do you really like listen to? And what I mean by that is like, do you go back and listen to your own and be like hear what these people say, and you're like, I like shut up.

SPEAKER_00 37:51

Yeah, I know I don't really like to go back and listen to my own very much because I'm like get mad. But no, I but when I'm watching a game, I definitely listen. And when growing up, that's how I learned. I learned so much just watching the original TSN commentators. You know, you had Vic and uh Linda Moore and Ray Turnbull, and yeah, I learned so much from them.

SPEAKER_03 38:12

No, it's it's and that that's kind of the thing is like listening to when you can hear the criticism of like yourself, but you know, you can kind of learn from that sometimes, but some people are just like, you know, don't listen to your own criticism type of thing.

SPEAKER_00 38:23

Yeah, I'd rather watch the game and analyze it myself. Like I can see where I went wrong or different things, sometimes without listening to the sound.

SPEAKER_03 38:32

Do you so do you listen? Do you listen on mute?

SPEAKER_00 38:35

Yeah, or sometimes just like on a get a video of the game that's just like a separate video, you know.

SPEAKER_03 38:40

I sometimes like to watch football on mute. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:43

Because I listen to forward through and and just watch the shots and see what happened.

SPEAKER_01 38:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:50

Yeah. But sometimes when I need to hype myself up, like if I really want to hype myself up before something, then I'll go watch and listen to the commentary on a game where I know I did really good.

SPEAKER_03 39:00

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 39:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 39:02

So okay, so you like to. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 39:05

And before I go to a tournament, a start of the year or something, you know, and just like watch and and listen and listen to the cheers and just listen to watch me make good shots, you know, and just get watch your own little hype, hype real.

SPEAKER_03 39:17

So you're not fueled by spite.

SPEAKER_00 39:19

No, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 39:21

See, I would go back and watch some of the ones where someone said something terrible with me. I'd be like, I'm gonna show you, kind of thing. That's the thing. It's like I'm gonna make that guy regret that sound.

SPEAKER_02 39:30

Do you find it is a good means of strategy, like watching watching your own games and and and seeing what your opponents are doing too, and like kind of just relating the commentary to what they're doing, what you're doing, and just like does it give you a better idea of how to play them and stuff?

SPEAKER_00 39:51

Like, yeah, for sure. And you see if you go watch how people always like see how different teams play, then you have an idea before you go play them what they might throw at you. So you're not surprised by shot selection or strategy they might make, and then watch to see, you know, watch a game and see what we did, and then see if it worked. Or if it didn't work, why didn't it work? Was it just that you missed a shot, or was it a str a strategy error? So then maybe okay, we need to try this different strategy. So I'll go and analyze, like, okay, every time I did this, this is what we scored. And if I did this, we scored this. So then kind of pick and choose your playbook based off of what works for the team.

Juniors, Coaching, And Club Culture

SPEAKER_03 40:37

It's it kind of going also going back to like the strength of everything too. I meant to like talk about this as um the like it there we must be seeing strong like juniors and kids coming up now. Because we're see like again, having two teams, having more representation fuels that's I think a big reason why like you know Colleen Jones like really fueled you and others and stuff like that. But like, are are what are you seeing when you're going to local curling clubs? Like, are you seeing like really good competition coming up?

SPEAKER_00 41:10

Yeah, there's some like here in Nova Scotia, we have a great junior program and a lot of strong junior teams. Yeah, you know, they're they always do well at the U18 nationals and at the U-20 nationals, Canada Games. There's and there's so many opportunities now, like extra events for these kids to play in, extra national type events. Like we didn't have U18 nationals when I was growing up, and you know, two teams generally get to go because we do well from Nova Scotia to all of those events, and so they're they've got better coaching now, more events for them to play into, and you see them practicing and putting more effort in, and I think it helps that they see teams like us and what we do and how much we're out there practicing and the type of practicing we do.

SPEAKER_03 42:00

Are you doing any coaching yourself now?

SPEAKER_00 42:02

No, I haven't haven't gotten my coaching yet, but I do want to do that in the near future.

SPEAKER_03 42:08

I mean you have other things right now, you have other goals.

SPEAKER_00 42:10

I know, but I really want to do it because I think I could do a good job. So I just need to get the certification and start start helping out. Because I've got you know some relatives, little relatives, you know, that have followed in my footsteps, and my niece, my niece Sarah, and I'd love to be able to help them out and coach them and coach her as she gets older, and my little cousin Ella has been coaching curling for a long time.

SPEAKER_02 42:33

And I was I was gonna mention Ella because when I was talking to Maria, she kind of mentioned like one of her favorite things was like the whole full circle of everything. How you grew up idolizing Colleen Jones, and how now like Ella is growing up watching you, and and it got her into curling so much, and it's just like a neat cycle. She thought it was like really amazing. That's pretty cool. It's cool to see. And she's really into curling too, like her and Gene, like in the out there and stuff. Like, like it's it's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 43:05

I just got to play with her on the weekend in the closing fun spiel at the Mayflower Curling Club, the Icemaker's Revenge.

SPEAKER_02 43:12

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 43:13

So I played with Ella and my cousin, the other Christina Black with a K.

SPEAKER_02 43:18

Christina with a K.

SPEAKER_00 43:19

Yeah. And her partner Nick. So they just started curling a couple years ago too.

SPEAKER_02 43:24

Oh, Nick played too.

SPEAKER_00 43:25

Yeah, so they, you know, they joined curling, did a learn to curl a couple years ago because our family now is so in paying attention to it, I guess, because of me. So they all pay attention to curling more and then tried it with some friends. And so we played in that and we got second. We won six straight games. It's pretty great. Yeah, six and oh on the weekend. Six and oh. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 43:46

And that was at the at the new at the new Mayflower.

SPEAKER_00 43:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 43:49

Oh, yeah, that's right. They get the new flowflower. Yeah, they just open it up. Yeah. How do you f how do you find it? Is it nice?

SPEAKER_00 43:54

Oh, it's such a beautiful building. Like it's amazing for us out here to have something new. Yeah. You know, most uh facilities are pretty aging and stuff, so to have a modern building, it's it's good and good for the future of the game here.

SPEAKER_03 44:07

Question for you about modern versus aging, though. A lot of like hockey players will talk about the older buildings, and the reason why they like playing in them is because of the hard ice. How is it for curling versus like a softer ice in like a newer building that might be like heated versus like an older building that's like hard rock kind of like what would you like? Do you notice a difference in that?

SPEAKER_00 44:31

Well, I think it's different for a curling club versus a hockey arena. The ice is different.

SPEAKER_03 44:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 44:38

The thing with a newer building is it's just more economical to cool the keep it cold, right? So it's not costing as much power to to run the plant to keep that ice where it needs to be. But curling ice, you never well, hopefully, we did at the trials have some some pretty crazy frosty ice and stuff. Soft ice conditions, but for the most part.

SPEAKER_03 45:01

Yeah. Well the Metro Center's warm. That's what I then that's what I mean that's what I mean though, right? Like yeah.

SPEAKER_00 45:04

And I've had people tell us before like that it was terrible ice to play hockey on because it's so soft.

SPEAKER_02 45:10

Yeah, it's super soft ice, yeah. It was not notoriously bad ice.

SPEAKER_00 45:13

It was hard to play curling on to.

SPEAKER_03 45:16

I would imagine that. Yeah. So that's yeah. So I guess that's kind of true. Like you say, you don't want to, you don't want like, you know, you want to obviously make sure things are done, but it's a good point saying like it's probably better technology now to make sure that the but you can't have those rooms heated.

SPEAKER_00 45:32

Yeah, I mean, well, the curling club usually like out on the ice. It's not there is usually some heat because it's not freezing, hopefully, or freeze to death. But you know, the ice they maintain it at a certain temperature, they're supposed to maintain different things like the dew point and the different you know, ice making's an art, you know, it's a science and an art, and the people who do it well are absolutely amazing and you know, very passionate about it. And I applaud them and thank them for their effort. Because ah, I can just complain about it, but you know, I can complain when it's not good, but a lot, you know, they put in a lot of work and uh to make it great for us curlers.

SPEAKER_03 46:10

Yeah, exactly. It's funny too. I think a lot of people who don't really understand that are probably just what are you talking about? Ice is ice.

SPEAKER_00 46:15

Yeah, but it's not, it's not.

SPEAKER_03 46:18

Yeah, it really isn't, right?

How Sweeping Really Changes Shots

SPEAKER_00 46:19

And there's so much that goes into it to make it great and good for curling, you know, and as a curler, we just want it to be consistent and uh the same for every game, you know.

SPEAKER_03 46:31

Yeah. So this leads us to the big question. How are you gonna win it all? What's your strategy? What are you thinking about? Like, you know, what is there spots that you think like, hey, I need to like, you know, we're we we're gonna try to focus on improving this, or is this just like, no, we're there, we just need to get on that run?

SPEAKER_00 46:51

Yeah, a little bit of both. You know, like I think we're there, we're really good, yeah, but there's always things to improve. Yeah, and everyone's always working hard to get better. So it's just looking at the game and and ways that we can get a little better. Yeah, how do we get a couple of percentage points better? And looking at our sweeping, I think that's something we want to work on, getting a little stronger with that. And I think bringing on Lindsay's gonna help a lot. She's a great sweeper, so I'm excited to have her come on board to play with us next season. And just you know, just analyzing the strategy, trying new things. We got to play a lot more last year against more higher ranked teams, which helped us learn the ton and figure out how to how important it is to be so good against them. Yeah, like there's no room for error.

SPEAKER_03 47:46

So I don't explain, maybe just do like a quick explanation about like what exactly sweeping does, because I don't think people realize like why you're doing that.

SPEAKER_00 47:57

Yeah, it's not just you know yelling for the sake of yelling. Yeah, I mean sometimes, but sweeping, I mean sweeping does a couple of things. One, it will make the rock travel further, so it will drag it further because you're heating up the ice, like the path that it's traveling down. And you can also somewhat manipulate the path that it's traveling. So if you're sweeping it and making it go further, you're also holding it straighter for longer. So you're delaying when it starts to curl.

SPEAKER_03 48:31

Right.

SPEAKER_00 48:31

Or you can also enhance how much it's curling at the end of the life of the curl uh of the rock.

SPEAKER_01 48:38

Right.

SPEAKER_00 48:38

Because as it's spinning, like you put a the you see the rocks are turning as they go down the ice. So you're able to kind of enhance that with your sweeping techniques as well. And there's lots of different techniques now that than there used to be, different equipment than there used to be. So it it's it's evolved a lot. And it's the more the stronger you can be, like the more body weight you can put down on your broom on the ice, like the better, more effective you're gonna be. So that's why you see bigger guys, like they can drag the rock really far and do crazy things with their sweeping because they're so strong.

SPEAKER_01 49:18

Right.

SPEAKER_00 49:18

Us us women, we lack that body weight a lot of the time.

SPEAKER_03 49:22

So you're not a very big person, so yeah.

SPEAKER_00 49:26

But like if you're a little taller, then you can get more leverage on the broom. That's right. Or if you can just be a little faster with your arms, like faster body movement, and it's just having the right technique to put as much of your body weight that you can. So even if you only weigh 120 or 30 pounds, like if you can get, you know, 90% of your body weight on that broom, you're doing a pretty good job. Right. So it's just figuring out your techniques and stuff to be more effective.

SPEAKER_03 49:54

Yeah. It was funny because when I was going through this and asking about like best curlers in the country and like asking if you were a top five or anything, and then I was asking Chat GPT to give me like funny things to say. And one of the funny things it told me to say, and I was like, oh, that's not it's funny, but it's not funny enough for me to put it in kind of thing or whatever, but I'll just say it now. Is it it wanted me to say, make a joke, something along the lines of like ask you like what you do during your day job, like we were just speaking about, and said, like, do people think that you're just really good at janitor work kind of thing? It's like, do you get like offers like you can sweep really well?

SPEAKER_00 50:30

Like you must be great at mopping.

Scouting Opponents And Endgame Strategy

SPEAKER_03 50:31

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, and it was like made like this kind of joke, and I was like, Oh, Chat GPT got some jokes here. Like, yeah. You're just getting contracts from schools. It's like a first round draft choice. So, okay, so yeah, so it kind of moving and and moving the needle and everything. So Olympic trials, they start is it like six months before the Olympics? Is that what it is?

SPEAKER_00 50:57

No, not even that much. Not even that much. Yeah, so like the Olympic trials, for example, were at the end of November and Oh wow, so three months away. Yeah, the Olympics is in February.

SPEAKER_03 51:05

So two and a half, actually, really.

SPEAKER_00 51:07

Yeah, it's not a lot of time for whoever wins to then get ready and go out.

SPEAKER_03 51:10

So start focusing and then focusing on who you're gonna be playing, yeah. Is there a is there a lot of that, like looking ahead at your opponents and seeing like and watching their film? Is there a lot of that?

SPEAKER_00 51:21

Yeah, like sometimes when you ha when I have enough time to do that for sure. Like I'll look at teams, if there's teams that I've never played before. Right. You know, I'll go watch some games that they've played just to try and get an idea of what kind of strategy they use, you know, how do they approach different ends? Like, this is pretty high level, but you know, in the first end, are they gonna throw a guard or are they gonna throw it in?

SPEAKER_03 51:45

Right.

SPEAKER_00 51:46

So you have an idea, like then you well what kind of strategy they might play. Do they throw a corner guard? Do they come around the center? Do they throw double centers? You know, just to get an idea of people's tactics. Because everyone's good, but it's nice to know what their kind of tactics are so that you know, okay, well, how is that gonna play against my game or what I like to normally do? Should I adapt what I w would want to do in that situation and or to combat like where they like to score their points? So if someone likes to, you know, play to the wing, then maybe I'm gonna try and drive the play to the middle. If they like to drive the play to the middle, I'm like, okay, well, I need to make sure I don't let them jump that up too much so I have room.

SPEAKER_03 52:32

So I I I I think it like really matters when like at your position, when you're in the skip, and now there's like a crowd of rocks, oftentimes, or there's a crowd of rocks, and to see what your opponent's gonna do and you know, whether they play it safe, or like you know, whether it's like, hey, you know what, we need we need one to tie it, but we're going for the win, or things like that. Like, I don't know if that has any kind of uh or like sometimes even stretch, like sometimes you need three or four, right? And to see if they're willing to to go for a big win or not. I I would think that like you want to know how your opponent thinks in that way.

SPEAKER_00 53:05

Yeah, because it's nice to know, so then you're not surprised, right? Like you'd like to have an idea of how they might approach that end. Right. You know, are they gonna really go hard to have hammer in the last end, or are that would they you know, would they would they not? Would they go for a blank? Would they you know, how are they gonna play it? So it's nice to have I like to know, so then I can plan my strategy accordingly.

SPEAKER_02 53:31

Yeah, there's a there's a couple of curlers out there who are notorious for making risky shots, like for example, like in in the like Bruce Mau.

SPEAKER_01 53:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 53:39

Like he a lot of people know that when he sees a shot, he's gonna go for it, no matter how difficult it kind of is. So I I imagine that's kind of built into the strategy of the game, knowing that okay, he's probably gonna take this risky shot, and if he doesn't make it, there's an opportunity to kind of come back at that, you know what I mean? Is that accurate in any way?

SPEAKER_00 54:04

Like, yeah, for sure. Like, you know, some teams, some skips really love a big, big, you know, hero hit shot, or uh they're able to make a big run back or uh an in off or something. So it's like you need to be paying attention that you don't leave something like that for them for a big score. And rather, like if you're choosing which shot do I block, do I block this one that's for one, or am I gonna block this shot that's for potentially five? Yeah, right? It's like they'll take that on and they're capable of making it, so I better protect against that big shot, even though I'm gonna leave them a wide open shot for one. Right, I have to in this situation because otherwise we're gonna lose the game if they make that right now, right? So that happens for sure. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 54:47

Absolutely. The uh like the games evolved a lot over the last 20 years. And I mean, like 20 years ago, having the hammer going into the 10th was seemed to be like the be all end all. Do you feel like it still is?

SPEAKER_00 55:01

You still win high percentage of those games for sure. But because of the free guard zone and no tick rule, it does make more chance of you being able to steal or something, you know, like or push the game to an extra.

SPEAKER_03 55:18

Well, I mean, if you're if you're up going in, like that's what I'm trying to think. Like, say it's like 6-4.

SPEAKER_00 55:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 55:23

Going into the 10th, and the other team has the hammer. Like, how comfortable do you feel at that point?

SPEAKER_00 55:28

Like, I have six, I'm up six. You're at six, I'm up six.

SPEAKER_03 55:30

And they have the their four, they have the hammer in the tenth. Yeah. How comfortable are you at that point?

SPEAKER_00 55:36

Oh, I'm feeling pretty comfortable.

SPEAKER_03 55:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 55:39

Because my team is pretty great at forcing. Yep. We're good at forcing another team to one.

SPEAKER_01 55:45

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 55:46

And but you're not feeling s a hundred percent comfortable because with the five rock rule, threes come around pretty easy. All it takes is like one mistake. So you have to be careful. And when someone's going all in, with the five rock rule, it's pretty hard to stop them from getting two.

SPEAKER_01 56:05

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 56:05

You know, so then you're looking at an extra end for sure, but you'll have hammer in the extra, so that's okay.

SPEAKER_01 56:10

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 56:11

But to but to prevent that too, sometimes you're taking on the risk of giving up the three, so you have to kinda weigh that. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like it's like you could go all into steel and and block up the middle and throw up guards and make it tough for them to even score at all.

SPEAKER_01 56:28

Right.

SPEAKER_00 56:28

But if you make a mistake and then you have some big extra hero shot for three, then you lose.

SPEAKER_03 56:35

Do you feel like you almost have like double life in a way though? Because I always think of it as like, okay, if you like it's like if you get it, uh, or if say you they tie the game at 6-6. Now you're going to the 11th, you're going to overtime. But you have the hammer now, so you almost have like, it feels like you have like double life. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 56:51

Exactly. So that's where you have to weigh your uh your shot options, like to make sure that you don't give up more than two.

SPEAKER_03 56:58

Right.

SPEAKER_00 56:58

Because if you go to the extra, your chances of winning are very high. Right. So your chances of winning in the 10th or the 8th end, depending on the game, up two without hammer, are still pretty high. Yeah. You know, I don't know exactly off the top of my head, but definitely pretty good.

SPEAKER_03 57:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 57:15

And then in the extra, tie game with hammer, it's very good.

SPEAKER_03 57:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 57:20

So you know that you've got a good chance to win that game. Just gonna squeak out one. Just don't blow it.

Officiating, Integrity, And Video Review

SPEAKER_03 57:25

Yeah, you're gonna squeak out one, and there's no more chance of rebuttal, right? So yeah. Awesome.

SPEAKER_02 57:30

Okay. All right. Tim, what do you got? Anything you got going on? Well, I wanted to take a like a small opportunity to ask you a little bit about officiating.

SPEAKER_00 57:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 57:39

So as we all know at the Olympics this year, you had the incident with Mark Kennedy, Oscar Erickson. Fingers.

SPEAKER_00 57:45

Boop gate.

SPEAKER_02 57:46

Yeah, little boop gate is what they called it there, and stuff like that. Now I don't want to really delve into that particular incident, you know what I mean? It stuff happens and whatever. But uh overall, do like I wanted to get an opinion from somebody inside the game as to how much do you would you like to see officiating be a part of the game? It do you feel that the game needs to evolve with like more umpiring of the like on ice level? Or or do you think that it should remain more of like a like a self-officiated game? Like, because it's all it it's historically it's always kind of been that way. It's been like an etiquette style game, sportsman-like game, you call your own kind of infractions kind of thing. But would do you feel like yourself or any of the other curlers at that level would like to see more involvement from officials? Like, would you like to see more rule enforcement just to make it like everybody on the same page, or what what what what do you think is the take there with with with curlers out there and that kind of thing?

SPEAKER_00 58:58

Yeah, I mean it's tough because like you said, it's been mostly a self-officiating, not a lot of officials. A lot of the tournaments we play in, you know, you're just out there, you're measuring your own rocks. There's no officials, there's no paid people out there, there's no one on the ice with you. You just settle things yourself, you know, and hopefully you think everyone's out there doing what is right, there no one's trying to break rules or do anything wrong. Exactly. Hopefully, that they're everyone's trying to be a good sport. I would hope. As a person, as a curler, they have integrity, like that's how I treat the game. So I don't see I I don't really like that it would change, but if they wanted the sport to get more professional, and if, like then in the instance of the Olympics, they then had officials, like they just kind of changed the rule almost on the fly because of what happened there. They're like, okay, then we're gonna stop any rocks that get touched or getting pulled. But then you have someone there arbitrarily just like watching, and it's very hard to tell, and then making that decision without any sort of concrete proof. I don't like. Yeah, right? So if officials are gonna have more power, I think one, they'd have to get paid. A lot of those people are just basically volunteers. It is a lot of volunteers, and there'd have to be like video review or something, or or some sort of like challenge system.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:28

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:29

You know, like baseball, you know, you're able to kind of you have so many challenges you can use kind of deal. Like if you don't think someone's out, they call you out at first base, and you're like, okay, I'm gonna use my challenge here, and and then they go and see if it's true or not. So it's a hard, it's hard, it's a hard decision to say what works. Because it is tough because our sport is so different. You've got some high-level events, you've got some just like local events that you go play in and random towns across the country where it's it is just people volunteering to run these things. There's no you know real officials, but if it goes to like a professional type level, and then you know, some of that stuff might have to come into play.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:15

I think what we take away from that is nobody likes riffs. Nobody.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:23

No, but they're just trying to do their job too, you know, and and with the information they're given. So you they got put in a hard place and it's tough, but between a rock and a hurricane snow. But you don't want it to impact the game. Um yeah, you don't want that to be what comes down to someone winning and losing if if the intention is not cheating, you know, like yes, there's some rules that might be accidentally break a rule or you do something, but you weren't trying um to do something bad.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:58

Right. I I I think that's the thing. Anytime nobody wants to watch games where the refs take control of the game. Yeah, nobody does. In any sport. It's if a if a bad call happens in a foot big football game or a hockey game or anything like that, nobody likes that. Like, even if your team wins, you're kind of like, uh, yeah, alright, I'll take the win, but yuck. Right? So it's like as a as a someone who watches sports, it's like even if it's not my teams, it's just two teams, and I'm just like, hey, this was a great game, and but the team won by a bad call. And it just kind of like takes away from how great the game could be. I as I I don't know. It's it's an interesting thing, like adding more rules, like all sports are talking about it, right? How much officiating we want with baseball, like you know, they they want to like really kind of see that strike zone. Yeah, take automatic strikes and all that stuff, and take away like with the umpire's call and things like that. And on one hand, I get the frustration where it's like that was clearly not a strike, and my team lost because clearly not a strike, right? But on the other hand, too, it's like you know, you get into too much precision, and sometimes sometimes the bad calls are what makes sports exciting.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:05

Yeah. I love baseball, and I'm a big baseball fan, so you know it's some some calls go your team's way, and some and you're like, yes, you know, that that strike that or that ball that looked like they were catcher was able to catch it perfectly, so it looked like a strike, and that you know, got you your third out of that inning or whatever, and and then sometimes it's obviously got one in your I'm yelling at the TV, like, are you blind? Like, come on. Are you kidding me? They're out, they're rigging it. They don't want us to win.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:38

Are you a Jays fan? Yeah. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:41

Sitting here with two Jays fans. Proper thing, man. You're in Canada. Who do you like? Red Sox. Yeah, don't don't even know.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:50

Oh, they they make me just oh don't like them.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:53

Oh, you don't like the the city that like came to help Halifax when their worst thing that happened to us in our history?

SPEAKER_00 1:03:59

Uh-huh. I love Boston. I have a lot of family in Boston, but the Red Sox, their players always just they look like bullies. I don't like them.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:09

That's the Yankees. You're supposed to not like the Yankees. Oh, I don't like them either. At least he's not a Yankees fan. That's the only thing I can say. Red Sox and Patriots. I'm a Leafs fan. They keep me humble.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:20

Go Habs go. Oh no.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:22

Are you a Habs fan? Oh no.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:24

You know what? I when I was a little kid. I did. I would say I was a Habs fan, but now I actually cheer for both the Habs and the Leafs, if you would believe it.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:33

Wow. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:34

I just mostly cheer for the Canadian teams, but my mom's a huge Leafs fan, always has been.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:40

Right.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:40

And I would just love to see them finally win for her.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:44

I know.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:46

Not happening. Not happening.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:49

No, I actually knew that about uh Carolyn. She was a Lee's fan. It's like, yeah, at a girl.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:56

It's right. But whatever. It is what it is. Anyway, I I I get to watch 10 championships in 20 years. So the Leafs keep me humble.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:07

So it is what it is. Okay, so yeah, sitting here with two Jays fans. Alright, let's move on. Um yeah, so okay. I think now is a probably a great time to move into our 10 questions.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:19

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:19

We're gonna do these a little bit different. They're kind of like, you know, some of them are philosophical, some of them are just silly, and some of them are just fun or whatever, and some of them are technical. They're gonna be all normally Tobin and I, like my co-host, would go back and forth, back and forth, but we're gonna do a little different this time. I'm gonna read five in a row, and Tim's gonna read five in a row.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:37

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:38

And uh we'll just go that route and then uh see how you answer them.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:42

Oh gosh.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:43

Everyone finds these so like when anyone who's it's a good thing you didn't listen to the show, because everyone who's listened to the show, this is the part where they're kind of like, this is what I'm most worried about.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:51

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:52

Not to scare you.

Next Season Goals And Sydney Slam

SPEAKER_02 1:05:53

I don't think they're that bad, they're fun, but you know, anyway. Before those, I I think you'd want to take a couple minutes just to say what's ahead for Team Black.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:01

Yes, yes, yes, yes. That's a good point.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:03

No, for the next year. I know, for example, like you got a couple of Grand Slam curl grand slam of curling events coming to your hometowns. Like, well, you got you got an event in Sydney, like that's gonna be awesome. You know what I mean? Like that that's the national, right? In Sydney?

SPEAKER_00 1:06:19

Yeah, yeah. So there's a Grand Slam of Curling event going to Sydney at the s at center 200. So really one of my main goals obviously is one of our goals is to get back to the Scotties. Um go win that. You know, I want to win that. But one of my big goals for the fall is to qualify for that slam. So we want to get in there. For me, it would be a dream to play at Center 200. Yeah. So it would be a dream come true to play. And I know the the city, and um they've hosted a few events in the last couple of years, like a Scotty's in 2019, and they had the women's worlds there in 2024, and both Um just so well attended, so well supported by the community, and I know the slam will be too. And if we could be there, it would be just so cool. Um have the crowd support us. Um hopefully we can make it to that one.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:17

I would definitely go if if you guys get into that. Like I know we could round up all the branch crew, it'll be so fun.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:25

And so when would that tournament be? That's in November.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:28

November of this year. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:30

So like we've got tournaments, we'll start in September. Traveling around, uh, go to probably Ontario a couple times, and then there's a couple of events that we play in here, and um just to try and qualify for that one. And yeah, and then it's just trying to get ready to win provincial skin. So we'll travel around just to different for different spiels, different spawn spiels for our it over the fall. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:56

Cool. And the Scotty's is actually in charlatan. Yeah. So that might be another Grange Crew road trip over there. There you go.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:05

Yeah. When's the when's that? Well, the February. That's February.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:09

End of February. Also, next year.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:11

February of next year. Okay. Around my birthday.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:13

Well, there you go, Tim. Birthday trip. Birthday, birth, birthday trip. There you go. Bring home a gold medal for my birthday.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:19

I'll do what I can for you.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:22

We can go over, we can maybe go over into Charlottetown. That's a quick little round. Yeah, well, I was saying, you know, get Maria, a couple of the grads crew together, Airbnb, and go watch some awesome curling. It'd be fun.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:33

It'd be fun. There's literally nothing else better to do in Charlottetown in the winter. No. Come watch curling. Exactly. Exactly. It's perfect. Go to the original Gahan House.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:43

That's right.

Ten Questions And Fun Hypotheticals

SPEAKER_03 1:08:44

Yeah. Alright, so now we're gonna move on to 10 questions. Okay, let's go. I'm gonna do 10 questions.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:48

Sort of.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:48

Okay. First one's a this one, this one's a fun one. But you have to think about it here. So if curling suddenly allowed one power-up in the game, like kind of like Super Mario, what are you choosing? A fire broom that can make the ice get warmer, like easier without having to sweep so much. A the rock can grow big.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:12

So you can basically like a mushroom. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:15

So it gets like three times bigger. The rock gets like three times bigger. Or a feathered rock that you can actually like curl up and down.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:24

Oh, those are good ones. Good job coming up with that.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:28

There you go.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:29

I oh man, that's a tough decision. You know, the one that would grow would be fun because sometimes you say, I need to throw the big fat one. Like pick the big pick the big fat one, and we need a good guard. Yeah. Even though you know they're all the same looking. But um the feather, I think, might be the most useful.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:48

That's what I would think of.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:49

Yeah, because you could avoid, you know, if there's guards, you could use it to go over them and land right where you need to be. So I think I would go with the feather.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:58

That'd be a hard skill to learn. Yeah.

unknown 1:10:00

Alright.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:01

Question number two.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:02

Just need some of my black magic.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:03

Ah, there you go. Black magic woman. Alright. If curling was like pro wrestling and you guys had to make like an entrance, what is your theme music for your team?

SPEAKER_00 1:10:20

Well, my roots will show, but say the rankings, you feel the same way too.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:26

Alright, that's great. No, that's a great one.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:28

I was gonna hear that come out.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:31

That's good. That's good. That'd be a good song. That'll get me pumped up. Oh, yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Alright, here's a technical question. So, as a skip, how do you balance just trusting your instincts or in the moment, like running through what the stats would tell you to do in like big moments?

SPEAKER_00 1:10:51

It's it's a little bit of both, and it's just like taking a breath. You know, you're always analyzing as the end is going on and keeping in mind what's your goal for that end. So it's just looking how things are developing and then knowing when's the moment you have to kind of switch, if and and then that's where you have to bring your gut into it. So sometimes, you know, things aren't going kind of to plan that stats are telling you, so it's being able to trust yourself of when that is and just going with your gut being like, okay, yeah, now here's the time we gotta go. Change gears here.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:26

Okay. All right, that's good. Alright, so question number four. So when you miss a crucial shot as a skip, and it's not the end of the game or anything like that, obviously. Say it's the ninth, you miss a crucial shot. How do you personally mentally adjust yourself to be prepared for the next end?

SPEAKER_00 1:11:48

Yeah, you just have to be able to perk that. Like take from it, you know, why did I miss? So I like to know, okay, was I just wrong in what I was supposed to throw there, or did I have the wrong ice, or or did I just throw it too hard or too light? Did I release it bad? Just like quickly know what went wrong and then forget about it. Okay, so like take what you can to learn from it and then move on. What are we gonna do now? Like, what situation are we in? What's our plan? Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:17

All right. It's hard to do sometimes.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:20

It is, but you have to um be a goldfish, you know, you have to have a short memory. Yeah, we go.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:27

All right. Mike will like that. Yeah. Goldfish.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:31

Yeah. Okay. Fifth question, so last one for me. So if curl if curling is basically kind of like um like high-speed chess, I want you to tell me what piece you are and each member of your team is.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:47

Oh. My goodness.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:50

Do you play chess?

SPEAKER_00 1:12:51

I I can play chess, yeah. I'm pretty good. You know, I play my my best friend, my best friend, her little girl, you know, she's pretty good, so she's basically my only opponent. But yeah, I do I do kind of like chess. Oh gosh, that's pretty hard. Um I would have to say, I don't know, this would maybe be wrong, and I'm I'm bad with the names and everything. So I think my third, Jill, she would have to be the queen.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:28

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:28

Yeah, because she's the most versatile. She can move in all of the directions and make all of the shots, right? So the queen can do all of the moves, right? Like they can move all the different ways. So that's what I would say there. Um and then I'd say you've got Marley the second. The second would be your kind of piece that you're gonna go and destroy the others with.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:55

So it's like the probably like rookie.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:58

Like I yeah, like you know, the castle one, the rook. So you're gonna use that one, you know, really strategically to make things like yeah, yeah, set up there for you. And then your lead is your setup. So that's your opener. So that's your pawn. Like you need to open with the proper moves to uh have your strategy in place. And then myself, oh my goodness, so I'm the skip and I'm the director. So you win with the king, right? You have to just finish it off, you kill the other king. I don't know. Or but my favorite, I like I like um I like the bishop, so I'll just say that that's me because that's my favorite piece. Okay, or but also the horse one. I think that's a good one.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:39

Well, I was I actually I I was those are my two. I was actually kind of thinking like the skip would be a knight. Yeah, yeah. Even though it's not like the mightiest. But the knight is sneaky.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:48

Yeah, and maybe the knight. Yeah, I think it would be the knight. You know why? Because that's someone you can use to make sneaky attacks. Yeah. Yeah. You set it up and they don't see it coming.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:58

Yeah. Yeah. Because it's like, it's like you know, everything is like straight lines, right? Yeah. Everyone, and they're like, oh no, I do this little L shape.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:05

And like, boom, got ya.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:06

Yes, that is definitely the answer. Thank you for your help. The knight. The knight is me. That's the skip. Yeah.

Halifax Trials Crowd And Gratitude

SPEAKER_03 1:15:13

All right. All right, Tim, over to you. Your question number six.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:17

Yeah, well, you know what? I I do I wanted to jump in with something before I before I got to my questions, and because didn't mention it earlier, and it's it's actually like I wanted to float back to a moment that you had with uh you were being interviewed.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:35

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:36

Yeah, like talking about this. Like I know you did uh a lot of interviews after the trials, and one that was really just spoke to me a lot was like is when you were talking about that incident at Scotia Square, where like you were just like, you went down and like you were just coming from your hotel, and like everybody started like having like an astanding ovation for you and all that kind of thing, and clapping and stuff, and you're like, Well, you know, I come down here for work sometimes, and nobody's clapping for me when I get a coffee on my lunch break or something like that, you know. But I wanted to kind of get a little bit of an inside as to why I feel that people really got behind you at those trials, because you know, I was there, I got to experience it myself, and it was honestly one of the coolest sporting experiences my entire life. Like it was electric in there, it was really awesome. But I think I think it had a lot to do not only with the skill of your team, but the fact that you you could hear it in your voice in the interviews, you could see it by how much you really thank the crowd. It was so genuine, it was just amazing. Like your Nova Scotia Sydney roots just really shine through, and everybody just like they've even they even said it on TSN. They're like it with Christina, it's just about being a good person. A lot of class, you gave a lot of respect to Holman and like and all your opponents, Anderson and all that kind of stuff. It was it was awesome.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:10

It was pretty good. Like, I watched it and I was like, you know what, that's a pretty special moment where it's like someone's just realized, like, oh wow, like this is so cool. Right? And that what kind of came across in that moment. So I mean, I'm sure that's what you were feeling, but you can tell us.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:27

Yeah, thank you. I mean, it's been pretty cool to hear from other perspectives of people who were there and how their week went, you know, because we had our week out there on the ice and and had an amazing time, but then also just to hear people, our fans and our friends and our family and stuff just saying like how cool it was for them to be there in the crowd. So thank you. That was that's awesome.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:49

Oh, it was amazing. Like there's there's a couple of good memories like like Jen when she when they brought all their students in. Yeah. Ran into the crowd, hugged the little buddy in the wheelchair. That it was awesome. And like being there with your family, getting to see all like just like feeling their energy getting behind you, and it's like you're an easy person to cheer for because everybody just loves you, they're so proud of you, you're just you're just so nice. You're just so nice of a person.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:16

So nice.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:18

And like I watched a Scotty's game where like with your dad, Tony, like in the bridge, and it was really cool because you could just you could feel that energy, and it was just awesome. It was really cool.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:31

So yeah, I mean it's it's pretty special, and for us to get to have played here in front of that crowd, and and just so cool. And it was like we wanted it to be an awesome week, we wanted to enjoy ourselves, and because we love curling, right? So, and I think that's important for me when I'm out there is is to show that I love curling so some kid is watching and sees how much fun we have, and I just trying to be myself, and just and I just love to play, and it's so fun, and so that someone else can watch and be like, I want to do that, that looks awesome, right? You know, so and it is just a sport and it's a game, and it's it's hard. Losing is awful, but it's a some that's the way sports go. So it's like you still have your great life and your great family, and no matter what. So it's just enjoy the game, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:25

Yeah, no, I know your cousin Alex was has tried to throw you off a few times and kind of get there, but like you weren't having it. But uh I I know that at the trials there the people who were doing that big like cheerleader cheer, you you you looked up and you you just had that beaming smile, and it was just like that's awesome. That's just so cool to see. There's like 8,000 screening before you're so cool.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:47

Yeah, and it's for me, and like this is such a privilege to get to do this. This is what I dreamed of as a kid, and then I get to do that and have people cheering for me is so cool. So I just know I'm just so grateful for every moment that I get to do that, and and if someone wants to cheer for me and or clap for me, or tell me, or stop me after, be like, I'm sure you hear this all the time, but congrats, you did so great, and like can't hear it enough, honestly. I'm just it's all it's awesome. It makes me feel so good, and yeah, it's definitely those moments we'll never forget just how special they were. Like, I can basically start crying just thinking about them at any moment, just to bring myself back to how that felt. Yeah, you just want to keep chasing that, right? Like, that's why you compete and stuff is to chase those winning feelings and those moments of just like pure joy. Yeah.

Pizza Takes, Star Trek, And Life Advice

SPEAKER_02 1:20:41

Oh, that was amazing. All right, now read your questions. All right, yep, we're gonna hop right in here. Let's see. Alright, well, we'll start off with So where in Nova Scotia are you gonna get the best pizza? Because we've heard you talk about this before.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:56

Um, Sydney, Nova Scotia, no question. Uh Napoli Pizza.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:01

And it's better than anything you'll find in Halifax, is that true?

SPEAKER_00 1:21:05

Oh, no question. Yeah, not even a competition.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:08

Wow, that's some fighting words there.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:10

I know I know that Maria says she has never found better pizza anywhere in the entire world.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:17

Okay, I'm gonna have to go and stop at this pizza place. That's why I'm in Cape Breton.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:21

That's a statement. Like Chicago, New York, Italy, Lebanon, you know? Yeah. Elmsdale. Elmsdale rocked some good pizza back in the day. The core don't listen to him.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:34

He doesn't know anything. He doesn't like cheese. She really did. He knows nothing. I don't even like pizza. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:40

I only like pizza at home. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:43

Wow. So you don't even eat it here?

SPEAKER_00 1:21:46

Not by choice. Like sometimes, you know, you end up somewhere and they have pizza at work, or they they you know, they you're over somewhere and they bring in a pizza, but I would never order a pizza myself.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:56

If I'm in if I'm the I'm in Sydney and I order from what is the pizza?

SPEAKER_00 1:22:00

Napoli combination. No, no, no, no. A combination. A combination. Okay. All right. That's what you call it. It's combinations.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:05

That's what I'm gonna get.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:07

She said it was the works without onions or something like that. That's what Maria said. Is that right?

SPEAKER_00 1:22:11

Well, it's pepperoni and green peppers and mushrooms.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:14

All right. And that's the best one. All right.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:17

It's the classic Cape Breton pizza. Combination.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:21

Okay. Question number two, Tim.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:23

Okay. So what is your typical pre-game ritual? Like before a big game. Like what like do you get in any sort of music or do you get in any sort of like do you eat certain meals or certain superstitions? And like, what about your team as well? Like Jill and Marley and everybody, right?

SPEAKER_00 1:22:44

Not really. Like, we'll have a pregame meeting as a team. And then you know, head to the rink and generally just turn on the same kind of tunes every time. And it depends on the event too, like if it's an event where we're just together as a team or if our coach is with us or not, too. And I always sit in the front though. So really? That's where I like to sit before a game. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:11

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:12

That's where I get my like Zen mode in.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:14

Oh. And do you all like the same music kind of thing?

SPEAKER_00 1:23:19

Yeah, pretty much.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:20

Even Stu, your coach?

SPEAKER_00 1:23:22

He just has to listen to what we just puts up with whatever. Yeah, yeah. We don't give him an option.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:28

Generally, you know, lots of Taylor Swift, lots of Dua Lipa. Oh yeah. We're all about the females in our pregame music. Yeah. Katy Perry. You know. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:39

Okay, okay, yeah. Very good. Next question, Tim. Alright, rolling along here. What is now? And or maybe growing up, what was your favorite board game?

SPEAKER_00 1:23:54

Oh man, I love games. Love card games the most. And then board games. Hmm. My favorite board game. If you're like, you want to play a board game? I'd probably say Ticket to Ride is one of my favorite games. Oh, Ticket to Ride, okay. Yeah, I like that game a lot. Growing up, it was probably what was that game we used to play? Can you remember? We had this crazy game at home, but I used to play a lot of Monopoly like that too when I was young. Like Clue. Oh Clue's great. There you go. Yeah. So over Christmas this year, actually, I got a mini clue and was playing that with my nieces a bunch. So I hadn't played it in a long time. Clue's a good one.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:39

Yeah, Clue's awesome. I know I've had like legit four and a half hour battles and then just Of Clue? No. Oh sorry of Monopoly. A Monopoly. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:48

Monopoly. You are taking a long time for Clue.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:53

Oh boy. Four and a half hour battle.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:56

Shouldn't take you that long to figure it out. No.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:59

No. Clue's a game you play many of. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:03

But Monopoly, yes. Oh my goodness. We would play games of that back in when we were kids in Jersey Cove, and I think it would last like multiple days. You know, or at some point you'd give up and like throw your money in with someone else. You're like, here you go, I I concede, and I'm gonna I'm gonna pile my money.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:20

It's like I'm gonna how I'm gonna like give it to you just to make sure he doesn't.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:24

Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:25

We had we had some epic battles, and I remember selling selling all my assets to Barrett Jason for a dollar, and Maria was not having it. She threw the pieces across the floor. It was like no, that's good. Yeah, what you ever play risk? You like risk?

SPEAKER_00 1:25:43

Um I never really played it much. No, I have not really played that much. I love Risk.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:47

Yeah, but you like you like Monopoly and Clue. And your family always played a lot of talk.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:52

Yeah, yeah. But it seems to me, I'm like, that's kind of like a card game. I don't know. I guess it's a board slash card game.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:58

Right.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:59

Yeah, so they play we play lots of that's and like Tarbish is my favorite card game. Which is just a Kate Breton card game, basically. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:08

No, very good. No, so you like you like Clue, you like Monopoly, and you like the Blue Jays, woman after my own heart. Speaking of which, that leads me into question five. Four. Four, sorry. So do you have a plus one date for Alex's wedding?

SPEAKER_00 1:26:27

I do not.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:28

You do not? Well, I you know, I was gonna go with your cousin Jason, but you know, if you're available. No, I'm just teasing it. But I'm I'm there's a possibility I might end up there. That'll be a good time.

SPEAKER_00 1:26:41

Oh, I can't wait. It's gonna be a lot of fun. Uh really looking forward to that one.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:46

No, I I I I hope to see you there. And I guess stuff leads you over to Jason, you suck.

SPEAKER_00 1:26:52

It'll be nice.

SPEAKER_03 1:26:53

If you're if you're still listening.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:55

Yeah. That leads you over to the last call, I guess, Matt?

SPEAKER_03 1:26:58

No, you're gonna ask your fifth question.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:59

Oh, I'm gonna ask the fifth question. And then yes.

SPEAKER_03 1:27:01

Okay, yes. Because it's a it's a yes or no answer, and then we're gonna get her to prove it.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:05

That's right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:27:06

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:07

Look at her face. She looks so nervous right now. Yeah. That's the game phase. So to close out the show, we're wondering, can you recite the closing credits of Star Trek The Next Generation Verbeta?

SPEAKER_00 1:27:21

Oh my god. The closing credits? Do they just like list them?

SPEAKER_03 1:27:29

Or is it the opening credits?

SPEAKER_02 1:27:31

Maybe it was the opening credits. Opening credits. Was it the opening credits? Because I heard a rumor, little birdie told me that there was a time that you could do that.

SPEAKER_00 1:27:39

I'm sure I could, because it is my all-time favorite show.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:44

There you go.

SPEAKER_00 1:27:45

When I was a little kid. And I do still watch Star Trek The Next Generation and a lot of the Star Trek very regularly.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:55

Your Uncle Peter would be.

SPEAKER_00 1:27:56

It is like my uh, you know, guilty pleasure when you just need to put on a show to just feel comforting. It's like an old Star Trek episode for sure.

SPEAKER_03 1:28:05

I think Warf would be a terrible curler.

SPEAKER_00 1:28:09

But the start would be like space, the final frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Ender Protest. Whose continuing mission to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before. In my not very good Patrick Stewart impersonation. There you go.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:33

That's awesome. Great job. I don't know if I could do a single thing. I don't I don't think I watched more than 10 minutes of Star Trek in my life.

SPEAKER_00 1:28:41

You're missing out.

SPEAKER_03 1:28:42

Okay. I was a big uh I like Deep Space Nine.

SPEAKER_00 1:28:46

Yeah, I love Deep Space Nine. I didn't like it enough until more recently.

SPEAKER_03 1:28:51

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:28:51

Because growing up I love the next generation.

SPEAKER_03 1:28:54

Yeah, see, I didn't really watch Next Generation. Yeah. So I was a big Deep Space. I was also a big seven and nine fan.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:59

Oh, there you go. Voyager.

SPEAKER_03 1:29:01

Voyager.

SPEAKER_01 1:29:01

Yeah.

Last Call And Closing Cheers

SPEAKER_03 1:29:02

Alright, so last call. Basically, all it is for last call is we have the question is what is one piece of advice that you were given in your life that you'd like to give us?

SPEAKER_00 1:29:13

Goodness. I don't know. What do I want to give you guys? I'm sorry. I'm really bad at being put on the spot like that. So, a good piece of advice. I don't know. Help me out.

SPEAKER_03 1:29:37

Curling is like life, no.

SPEAKER_00 1:29:40

Yeah. Let me think of some wisdom. Some good wisdom.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:46

Has anybody told you something that's resonated with your end? Sorry, I didn't mean to cut you off.

SPEAKER_00 1:29:51

No. I'm like honestly just blanking in my head on what to say to this advice. What's like some like very profound, great thing to tell anyone?

SPEAKER_03 1:30:02

There's always another end.

SPEAKER_00 1:30:04

Yeah, yeah, no. And I feel like I don't even have anything good with curling, what I would say. Um you know what? Okay, so I'm like trying to think to all the people and the wonderful people that have given me advice and helped me out over the years.

SPEAKER_01 1:30:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:30:22

And this may not, so I was like, oh, what am I gonna tell you guys? You're not curlers, it might not help you. But no matter what you're doing in life, for me, no matter where I go curling or what kind of event or how big of an event it is, I think back to Kim Kelly told me when I was going to play in my first Scottties, it's still just curling. So even no matter how big the event, they're not gonna make me do it with my other hand or blindfold it, or um, you know, like have to do cartwheels or anything. It's still just curling. So no matter where you are, no matter what you're doing, you've done it before. It's just normal. It doesn't matter what sort of situation you're in. It's just curling.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:12

That's great advice. That could be applied to anything. Oh, it really is. Like, I think about that in baseball. Yeah. Like just going to play, you know, and different things like that.

SPEAKER_03 1:31:22

Well, on that, cheers to that. Thank you so much for coming. Really appreciate it. Cheers. Tim, thanks for hosting. Even though you had to take a pee break in the middle.

SPEAKER_00 1:31:30

Thank you guys for having me. It was really fun. Cheers.