Joey Payeur
It’s been a while since Jackie McCormick had a shot at a Canadian title.
But she has given a long look to the ceiling of her hometown Stratton Curling Club and has envisioned a shiny new decoration to join the two already hanging from it.
“The last national final I was in before now was in university . . . it’s nice to get that chance back again,” she noted.
McCormick will play third for skip and brother, Trevor Bonot, as they represent Northern Ontario, along with Thunder Bay second Kory Carr and lead Megan Westlund, at the 2017 Canadian mixed curling championship in Yarmouth, N.S., which begins Sunday and runs through Nov. 19.
“It would be nice to get another banner to hang up there [in Stratton],” she remarked.
“It’s extra special that I get to play there [at nationals] with my brother,” McCormick added.
“Especially coming from a small town, it would show the up-and-coming curlers around here what they can do even if they’re not from a bigger community.”
The Bonot rink qualified for the nationals by winning the provincial title at the Fort Frances Curling Club back in March, beating Thunder Bay’s Dylan Johnston 5-3 in the final.
“The time has gone by quickly but it’s still unfortunate in my mind that they do it this way,” McCormick said.
“It would be nice if they could do it shortly after the provincial event, but I’m very busy in my life so there’s not a lot of time to think about it,” she reasoned.
McCormick’s jam-packed schedule between her business obligations (as owner of the Fort Frances Enhanced Hearing Centre) and her family responsibilities as a wife and mother have left her precious little time to get her game in order.
“We were together as a team one weekend in September in Thunder Bay,” she noted.
“But living where I do [in Stratton], there is no luxury of early ice, so I scoot over to the Fort Frances Curling Club to throw rocks at lunchtime when I can,” she explained.
“We just start league play [this week] in Stratton so I will have one game under my belt before we head to nationals.”
Northern Ontario has a high seed at the nationals based on its third-place finish last year in Toronto.
Their opponents in Yarmouth aren’t well-known to McCormick—but definitely are familiar to her sibling.
“In the curling world, pretty much everyone knows each other,” she remarked.
“Trevor has played against many of them, though, and knows quite a few of them.”
The two most notable names in the field are Nova Scotia skip Paul Flemming and Manitoba third Kerri Einarson.
Flemming has won the mixed nationals both times he has appeared in 1999 and 2003, and also is a six-time Brier participant (including three times as skip).
Einarson, meanwhile, is a two-time provincial mixed champion.
She also skipped her women’s rink to the Manitoba Scotties Tournament of Hearts title last year before finishing fourth overall at the national Scotties.
“We’re not overly concerned about anybody else,” said McCormick.
“We have to play well regardless of who we’re facing.”
McCormick will be tossing stones within the confines of the Mariners Centre—home for the Yarmouth Mariners of the Maritime Junior Hockey League and a much different environment than the cozy surroundings of the Stratton club.
“You don’t get the chance often to play somewhere like that,” she noted.
“I don’t think there will be much of an adjustment to playing in an arena,” McCormick said.
“The benefit of playing in Stratton is the varying ice conditions we have out there all year long.
“The arena will probably be faster ice than we’re used to, but we’ve played at the Port Arthur Club [in Thunder Bay] a lot and it’s fast, too,” she noted.
“The ice might be affected by the temperature in the arena, depending if there’s a large or small crowd, and also if there is an empty sheet next to you or not.”
McCormick has been to Nova Scotia once before but not to Yarmouth—not that she’s checking up on sightseeing opportunities.
“It’s kind of an off-time of year for tourism there,” she chuckled.
“But it’s still nice to get to play in different places.”
