Curling is already part of Canadiana, but before long it might be woven into the fabric of Chinese culture, too. If it’s up to Marcel Rocque, that time will come in the next two years.
Rocque won three world championships and four Briers during his illustrious curling career in Canada. Now he’s hoping to make an even greater impact on the game as a coach in the Far East. Rocque, 45, is currently coaching the Chinese men’s team en route to the 2018 Olympics after leading them to a fourth-place finish in 2014. “I’ve always felt that I have to give back to the game because it’s been so good to me,” he says. “When this opportunity came around, it was fairly simple. I want curling to be healthy everywhere. If you look at the women’s hockey program, you can’t just have Canada and the U.S. competing, because eventually that gets old. To have the game grow in other countries is the mandate of the World Curling Federation.”
Rocque, who teaches culinary arts at a high school in Edmonton, was granted a two-year leave to head to China for the coaching gig. He’d already taken a 10-month leave in 2013 to help China prepare for the Sochi Olympics. This time around, the sacrifice was greater, as the extended tenure means losing his classroom, and he doesn’t know where he’ll be placed when he returns. “My athletes reached out and said they needed help and they needed me,” Rocque says. “When they put it that way, I really had no choice.”
His background as a teacher comes in handy. “I’m a second-language teacher as a minor for my education degree,” he says, “and I use a lot of the strategies I would use as a teacher.”
The cultural differences aren’t an issue, but the language barrier can be. “Trying to deal with something technical takes me a lot longer with the Chinese team strictly because of language,” he says. “They have a translator for me to use. We try to create a language also, so we can communicate on the ice without using all the words. Some of the technical things require translation, and the challenge with that is quite often the translator doesn’t know curling.”
There’s no lack of support for the sport in China. In fact, the country has helped fast-track the sport. “We have the best ice-makers in the world coming in when we’re training in the summer,” he says. “They have all the resources. They are focused on giving us everything we need for success.”
The main difference is in expectations. The players were ecstatic with their surprise fourth-place finish in Sochi. Rocque less so. “I’m Canadian, so fourth place to me is not necessarily succeeding,” he says. “I’m wired to win. We had enough game there to go and win any coloured medal, and that’s what I want to do. I want them to feel confident and feel they have a chance to compete with anyone on any given day.”