‘A phenomenal moment:’ Homan celebrates fourth Scotties title

With Jennifer Jones in the hack ready to throw her final stone, Rachel Homan didn’t have any control over how things were going to play out in the 10th end of the Scotties Tournament of Hearts final.

Homan had a counter in the four-foot as Jones threw her last shot of the Canadian women’s curling championship Sunday in Calgary. But the legendary Manitoba skip couldn’t make the draw, so Homan didn’t have to throw her final stone in a 5-4 victory.

It was Homan’s fourth Scotties title.

“It was definitely a nerve-wracking moment …,” she told The Green Zone’s Jamie Nye. “When the rocks finally settled and we realized we were champions, it was a phenomenal moment to be in the house with Tracy (Fleury, the team’s third) and just witnessing her reaction to her first Scotties win.

“It was a lot of hard work over the year, and over the years. These last two years with this new team, it’s just exciting to be able to finish it off.”

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Homan and second Emma Miskew have been teammates for years — they won Scotties titles together in 2013, ’14 and ’17 — but lead Sarah Wilkes joined the team in 2020 and Fleury came on board in 2022.

The four members of the team played in a Scotties for the first time in 2023, when they lost in the championship round.

A year later, they’re national champions and will represent Canada at the world women’s championship, March 16-24 in Sydney, N.S.

“I honestly think it does take a couple of years (for a new team to gel),” Homan told Nye. “The first year, you’re just relearning all new communication. With a curling team, there’s only four players, so everyone plays such a key role in communication, how you manage shots, how you approach the game and your strategy, and learning everyone’s strengths and weaknesses and the game that you want to call.

“Just that alone will take a full year to figure out. Then, the next year, it’s kind of figuring out how that all works together and putting the pieces together.”

The Homan rink put it all together in the 2024 event in Calgary.

The Ottawa squad went 8-0 in the round-robin, knocked off four-time defending-champion Kerri Einarson in a 1 vs. 2 qualifying game, beat Jones in the 1-2 Page playoff game, and then downed Jones again in the gold-medal game.

Homan, Fleury and Miskew were named first-team all-stars, while Wilkes earned a spot on the second all-star team. Homan curled 90 per cent for the week, with Fleury at 89 per cent, Wilkes at 88 per cent and Miskew at 87 per cent.

The skip was particularly deadly, just as she has been all season. Her team has lost just five games to Canadian competition this year.

“This last week was the best I’ve performed ever at a Scotties,” Homan said. “We’ve gone undefeated — in 2014 — but I personally definitely played the best I’ve ever curled (in Calgary).

“My team in front of me just made that easy. They had such a strong week and so many big team shots and line calls. It just felt easy with the other three amazing athletes that I got to play alongside this week.”

Homan also described how grateful she was to have played for many years alongside Jones, who previously announced she was retiring from competitive women’s curling after the season.

Homan recalled the first time she ever played Jones, during a bonspiel years ago in London, Ont. Homan was a junior at the time, and her team beat Jones and her well-established foursome.

“It was such a cool moment to be able to play against some of your heroes of the game, and to be able to compete with them on the ice was a really cool feeling,” Homan said.

“Obviously we’ve gone back and forth over the years and have played each other a ton of times. She’s won a ton of games and so have we, so it’s always a battle out there when the two of us step on the ice. I’m definitely going to miss that for sure.”