Note: An earlier version of this story was published Oct. 23, 2018.
Boy, that escalated quickly.
Kerri Einarson’s brand new crew rocketed to the top of the World Curling Tour’s year-to-date women’s rankings already by winning four championships through six events to start the season.
Surprised? The rapid-fire rate Einarson & co. collected hardware to start their tenure together even amazed themselves.
“I think we were pretty surprised by our success so early,” Einarson said. “We didn’t expect it this soon but it’s always good to get off to a great start and build that confidence.”
The beginning of the new Olympic cycle saw sweeping lineup changes across Canada but what makes Einarson’s situation unique is she linked up with three former skips adding Val Sweeting at third, Shannon Birchard at second and Briane Meilleur at lead. One may have had their doubts an “all-skip squad” could get along — believing it to be a recipe for disaster with too many cooks in the kitchen — however, Team Einarson has made it work with everyone adapting and embracing their new roles.
“I’m really enjoying it actually,” Sweeting said in September about sweeping and playing third. “We’re all just in it together. We have definitely come a long way from when we were playing in Winnipeg a couple weekends ago until now. I feel a lot better about shot management. It’s definitely still going to be an ongoing focus going forward. We’re learning a lot and the ice has been so consistent out there that’s it’s been easy to learn and do that, so that’s been great. It’s feeling really natural out there.”
The previous experience as skips has helped, not hinder, their performance with communication being key and Einarson appreciates their input.
“I know right from lead to skip we’re all reading the ice. We’re all remembering shots because they used to skip, (it’s) just their tendency to do, which is good,” Einarson said. “I always ask Val if she thinks if it looks good and she always agrees it does, so we’re always all on the same page, which I think that’s what is really helping with our success.”
It’s gotten to the point where Einarson and Sweeting are so in sync on the ice they’ve even been caught on camera adjusting their glasses at the same time.
“People are starting to say we look quite a bit alike,” Einarson said with a smile. “Val and I have a really good relationship in the back end. She’s such a smart player, I look to her for a lot of advice as well.”
Birchard also credits their pre-season get-together in Einarson’s hometown of Gimli, Man., for establishing their chemistry.
“We spent a lot of time over the summer hanging out and brought Val into Winnipeg and then we went up to Gimli, which is where Kerri lives,” Birchard said. “We played slo-pitch for a weekend and just hung out and partied with some of her friends up there. It’s the best way to bond, right? We really got to know each other that way and that really translated well on the ice.”
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The genesis of the team began last February when Einarson parted ways with third Selena Njegovan, second Liz Fyfe and lead Kristin MacCuish. Even as the foursome earned the silver medal at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts and had success on the Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling tour, things just weren’t working out. Einarson didn’t have to go searching for new teammates though as they sought her out instead.
“Shannon actually reached out to me first and told me that her team was changing and then Briane too,” Einarson said after forming her new team. “Briane and I have texted the last few years since I took her as my fifth at Scotties (in 2016), and we were close. She played baseball with me a few times. It was just going to be me, Shannon at third, Briane at second and then we were going to find a lead.”
Birchard said she knew Einarson was a great shooter and had watched her for years leading to her decision to team up.
“Everybody knows she’s going to make the big shot when you need it, so that’s great to have in a skip,” Birchard said. “She’s also really smart out there in the house. She plays an aggressive game, which I like. I think we’re really similar personality-wise and same goes for Val and Briane, so we get along really well. I think it’s contributed to our good start this season.”
Einarson felt pretty excited knowing Birchard wanted to play with her.
“I was like, wow, knowing that her being a skip and a great skip in juniors and coming out of juniors she was a great skip and a positive person,” Einarson said. “For her to look to me to come play with was pretty awesome. I was just so surprised, like OK, yeah!”
Those plans were altered when Sweeting found herself as a free agent when her Edmonton-based club opted to split up.
“You anticipate that there’s going to be some sort of change but then as things unfolded in the last couple weeks it just led to me being on my own,” Sweeting said upon joining Team Einarson. “I was pursuing everything. I kind of took a step back and realized that third might be a good position for me.”
Sweeting inquired with Einarson about possibly playing third but only if Birchard and Meilleur were alright with sliding down in the order. Not only did they agree, but it also showed Einarson they were willing to do whatever it took to win.
“I sat down with them, we talked and they thought it was an amazing opportunity for them to get themselves out there and to get into the Slams as well,” Einarson said. “I think we’d be on the bubble for that or close or in. That was one of the goals for Shannon and Briane, to be into the Slams, so they thought it would be great.
“They would love to play different positions, embrace them and be the best lead and second that we need.”
It’s been a complete overhaul with challenges for everyone including Einarson, who has had to draw up a different game plan to accentuate her new teammates’ strengths, especially with the southpaw Sweeting as her in-turn and out-turn shots are different.
“They all throw a little bit different and having Val as a lefty, that’s something else I’ve had to adjust to as well,” Einarson said. “I’ve definitely had her help with that. I just told her if you don’t think I’m giving you enough (ice) or too much just to let me know because I want her to feel as comfortable as possible.”
Their debut at Winnipeg’s Goldline Icebreaker at the Granite at the end of August didn’t go as planned finishing with a 2-2 round-robin record and missing the playoffs. Einarson still saw some silver linings in their first outing together.
“When we played in our very first event, we took some positives out of it. We didn’t qualify but we were so close,” Einarson said. “It’s not like we played bad, we lost two close games, so we knew that we were on the right track. We knew we just had to work on a couple things communication-wise and we’ve put a lot of hard work into that.”
Suffice to say, they figured that out in a flash bouncing back to capture their first title at the Stu Sells Oakville Tankard in mid-September and continued to collect consecutive titles at the Morris SunSpiel, Mother Club Fall Curling Classic and Curlers Corner Autumn Gold Curling Classic. The front-loaded schedule was by design to play more games and get used to their new roles plus the win in Morris, Man., secured their spot for the provincial curling championship in Einarson’s hometown of Gimli.
“The three of them are at all-new positions, so they wanted to get some more sweeping in,” Einarson said. “These girls have put in a lot of work off and on-ice for sweeping. It’s really amazing the work that they’ve put in. They’ve just done a really great job on getting to know their positions and playing them really well.”
The out-of-the-box explosion may suggest things have come easy but that wasn’t the case at the Autumn Gold Curling Classic. Einarson lost back-to-back games to Team Laura Walker and Team Rachel Homan during preliminary play to fall into the C Event of the triple knockout stage. Another loss would have meant C-you-later but Team Einarson bounced back on the verge of elimination winning five consecutive games to capture the championship.
“That was a really big event for us. We played pretty much all Slam teams in that event,” said Einarson, who defeated Team Jennifer Jones twice during the tournament including the final. “It was a good test for us when we lost those two games. In that A-side qualifier, we weren’t quite ourselves so we sat down afterwards and we kind of figured out what were we doing wrong, what happened here. That was a really good lesson for us as well.
“We came back and played Homan. It was a really good game, we just didn’t have the hammer in the eighth end. We knew our backs were against the wall so we had to really grind through the C-side. It was a long two days because we played three games on Sunday and three games again on Monday. It was really tiring.”
The new Team Einarson made their Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling debut at the 2018 Masters and it’s interesting to note how much has changed in only four years. It was at the 2014 edition of the Masters in Selkirk, Man., where Sweeting skipped her previous squad to its first Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling title (with an assist from super-spare Cathy Overton-Clapham at third) while Einarson watched as a fan in the stands.
“Sitting behind her sheet, I had actually said to her if we would’ve been closer and known each other then, maybe I could have filled in or something. We were joking about that since I grew up in Selkirk,” Einarson said with a laugh. “It’s actually pretty crazy how far I’ve gotten in the last four years from sitting back there drinking doubles to playing in this elite level. It’s been a lot of hard work through these last four years but hard work pays off.”