Jones back at Scotties Tournament of Hearts to coach Homan's team

THUNDER BAY - Jennifer Jones was back in familiar territory and colours in a new role Thursday at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts.

The six-time Canadian women's curling champion and all-time leader in wins at 177 stepped to the coach's bench of Rachel Homan's team.

Jones's Tournament of Hearts swan song was a 5-4 loss to Homan in the final less than a year ago in Calgary, where she bid a tearful farewell to a stage where she'd been brilliant.

"I was thrilled to be able to come back," Jones said Thursday. "It's fun to come with Team Canada, and I'm really enjoying the different role. 

"It feels like I'm on the ice. I feel super-invested, and I feel like I'm out there throwing with them."

Jones bore the Maple Leaf at six world championships and two Olympic Games. Her teams won a pair of world titles and went undefeated to claim Olympic gold in 2014. 

Hearts champions return the following year as Team Canada, which was an experience Jones also knew well. 

The 50-year-old from Winnipeg arrived in Thunder Bay to don red and white again and advise a team skipped by a former archrival attempting to claim back-to-back crowns.

Homan was 16 when Jones won her first Canadian championship in 2005. 

Their careers overlapped. Games against each other felt like a women's curling heavyweight bout.

Homan's all-time record against Jones at the Hearts was 8-5, including a 9-6 win in the 2013 final and last year's victory in Calgary.

Homan's 6-4 win over Jones in the Page playoff between the top two seeds in Calgary was a classic battle of two skips at the top of their game.

Jones did some coaching of Homan's team in this season's Grand Slam of Curling series when she wasn't in the broadcast booth.

"Getting to know her, being on the same team this year, it's been amazing," Homan said. "We see the game the same way and we're both competitive people and, you know, she finds ways to win."

It was a mental shift for longtime combatants to suddenly become allies, Homan's second Emma Miskew said.

"Definitely the rivalry was there for many, many years," Miskew said. "At first we were like, this is strange because it has been a long rivalry.

"But when it changes to . . . working together, it completely changes the way that you see someone, and the way that she's been helping us has been so great. She provides so much insight. It's just very different from the person that you're trying to beat all the time."

Said Jones: "It wasn't as hard as I thought. There's always been this a ton of mutual respect between both of our teams. 

"I know how good Rachel is. I know how good the entire team is. I've watched it, like, up close and personal. So it's fun to be on the other side."

Homan, third Tracy Fleury, second Miskew and lead Sarah Wilkes out of the Ottawa Curling Club were playoff-bound in Thunder Bay with an 8-0. Their undefeated streak dating back to Calgary was 18 straight wins.

"I'm telling them all the positive things that they're doing, and there's so many, but if I can find those little things that I think that they can do maybe slightly better, then I'm going to speak up and just try to be a sounding board for them," Jones said. "I mean, they're so good. 

"It's just in those moments where they might just want to pick my brain, I want to be there for them"

Jones continued to curl mixed doubles this season with husband Brent Laing. She's an adviser to and commentator for The Curling Group that purchased the Grand Slam series from Sportsnet last year.

Retiring from women's team curling wasn't an easy decision for Jones after reaching Hearts finals in back-to-back years with an up-and-coming young team. 

She insisted Thursday she didn't feel the itch to get back out on the ice.

"You know what? I'm good," Jones said. "I'm always going to be a competitor and you always want to play. That's just ingrained in me, but I'm really content with my decision. I feel I'm happy with all the curling things I'm doing. It has kept me in the game."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 20, 2025.