Jeff Flett is living the fantasy of every parent whose kids become competitive curlers.
His daughter, Kerri Einarson, is flying the Canadian flag as the home-country favourite at the BYK Tires & OK Tire Women’s World Curling Championship this week at CN Centre and he’s in charge of shaking the cow bell and leading the cheers for the Einarson-Flett clan whenever Team Canada makes a great shot.
They’ve had much to cheer about after Canada put together a five-game winning streak that had them temporarily in second place in the 13-team event and Flett is anticipating his daughter will be in the dogfight for the world title when the playoff round begins Saturday.
“It’s just unreal, for her to be representing Canada on home soil, is just awesome, it’s a dream come true,” said Flett. “It definitely worth the trip. It doesn’t matter where worlds would have been, we would have been there.”
Bill and his wife Marilyn live in Gimli, Man., an 89-kilometre drive north of Winnipeg, and for nearly two years, during much of their reign as winners of the Scottie Tournament of Hearts national women’s title the past three years, the pandemic kept the Fletts from traveling to watch Kerri and her crew play in high-level tournaments. There were no spectators allowed at the 2021 Scotties and in Calgary the stands were kept empty for the Beijing Olympic trials in Saskatoon.
“It saved us a lot of money just watching on TV, but it was very tough,” admitted Jeff. “We enjoyed every minute on TV and we did the best we could to stick it out.”
Canada finished the day Thursday with a 7-3 record after losing an extra-end game 8-7 to South Korea. After a hot-and-cold start that left them 2-2, they’re looking a lot more like the team that dominated the Scotties a month ago in Moose Jaw, finishing with an 11-1 record while leading the individual statistics at every position.
“They’re all playing great and they’re finding their stride,” said Einarson’s mom Marilyn Flett, who flew in from Manitoba last Friday and will head home on Monday.
So far, nine games into the tournament, Jeff likes what he sees from Kerri and her team, third Val Sweeting, second Shannon Birchard and lead Briane Mailleur.
“They’re all excellent at what they do and it’s showing in the percentages they’re playing,” he said. “They’re just firing on all cylinders. The way they’re playing right now, they could be here late Sunday (for the 4 p.m. final) and that’s what we’re hoping.”
Marilyn was in Prince George with her husband two years ago all set to watch the women’s world event when the plug was pulled at the last minute, just as the pandemic hit the province. The 2020 women’s world championship was one of the first international sporting events to get cancelled because of COVID.
This week, their direct interactions with Kerri have been kept to a minimum to try to lessen the COVID risk. The Scottish team became infected with the virus and was forced to pull out of the tournament on Sunday, after playing two games without their skip Rebecca Morrison and alternate Fay Henderson, when two additional team members tested positive for COVID.
“(Kerri) came out for supper one night, but they don’t want to get sick,” said Marilyn.
Einarson’s twin eight-year-old daughters, Karmyn and Khloe, were there to watch her curl in 2018 Scotties in Penticton, where she lost in the final to Jennifer Jones, and they were in Moose Jaw in 2020 to see her win her first Canadian women’s title. Two years out of an eight-year-old’s life is a long time to wait for the excitement of being part of the audience again to cheer on mom.
“It feels good to see her play,” said Kamryn. “It’s fun watching my mom curl.”
Khloe, who is three minutes older than her sister, was impressed after seeing Kerri steal points in the first three ends to take a 4-0 lead over the United States, on the way to a 9-3 win in Thursday’s morning draw.
“She made a lot of good shots,” said Khloe, who curls with her sister on Mondays at Gimli Curling Club, Einarson’s home rink.
Marilyn and Jeff found out at the last-minute that families were allowed to sit in the stands and they made the 785-km drive this year to Thunder Bay, Ont., but Kerri’s daughters did not make the trip.
“They were a little mad us when we went to Thunder Bay without them but they will remember this for the rest of their lives,” said Jeff.
The Einarson/Flett entourage also includes Kerri’s husband, Kyle, and her uncle, Greg McAulay, and his daughter Amanda.
McAulay, 62, is Marilyn’s brother and they were raised on a grain farm near Selkirk, Man. He moved to Vancouver in 1989 and went on to represent B.C. twice at the Labatt Brier national men’s championship, teaming up with Brent Pierce, Bryan Miki and Jody Sveistrup. McAulay lost in a tiebreaker in 1998, his first year at the Brier and beat Russ Howard for the title in 2000, going on to become world champions in Glasgow, Scotland.
McAulay, a 62-year-old autobody mechanic in Vancouver, retired from curling after winning the B.C. senior title in 2011. He played twice on the arena ice at CN Centre, first at the 1999 B.C. men’s championship, when he lost the provincial final to Bert Gretzinger, and in 2009 at the Olympic pre-trials qualifier, where Wayne Middaugh beat him in the C-event final. Now he’s a spectator, watching his niece take on the world in Prince George and he’s thrilled to be there to cheer her on.
“She’s playing so good, the last six years we’ve been following her a bit, and it was nice to see she got back to play here,” said McAulay. “We were all booked in to come here two years ago and we all know what happened. My wife (who works as a wedding planner) is doing a wedding this weekend and she couldn’t come, and she’s all grumpy about that, so I had to buy her a hoodie.”
McAulay never coached Kerri because he lives so far away, but he says she’s obviously picked up on some of the familial traits that helped both of them master the game.
“It’s in her genes,” he said. “She’s the only one in the family that kept going with the curling. Even my girls played a bit through junior and stuff but family life got in their way. But she’s been able to manage it with the kids and do very well at it.
“She’s got grit. I was a little more laid-back.”
Known for her fiery character on the ice, Kerri started curling when she was nine but got into it in a big way when she was 12, watching her Uncle Greg win his Brier title in Saskatoon.
“That connection to her uncle Greg made her push harder,” said Marilyn. “To see that he could do it, she could do it better.”
Kerri also likes the outdoors, baseball and golf, but curling was Number 1 from the start.
“She had it right from the get-go,” said Jeff. “There was no beating around the bush. That’s something she loved and she cherished and she just kept exceling at it. It was just a natural with her and she just loved the sport, and went out of her way to play the sport.
“Just her watching Greg inspired her to step it up a bit. It’s just the drive that she has, and everything she does, she excels. She picks up a golf club and she’ll go out and knock off a hole-in-one. She’s got two of them.”
Einarson, now 34, grew up on a farm near Selkirk, Man., and she and her 16-months older brother Kyle Flett learned to curl at Petersfield Curling Club. Kyle was a provincially-ranked golfer and in curling he was finalist in the 2006 Manitoba junior men’s championship. He was considered one of the top young skips in the province when he was killed at age 20 in a snowmobile accident, Dec. 17, 2006.
“Kerri always has a picture of him in her locket she wears 24/7, especially on the ice,” said Jeff. “It was devastating for her and whenever she’s on the ice, he’s there with her.”
