Jennifer Da Silva is stuck between her Auntie Lisa Giesinger and longtime resident Sue Calder as they talk about everything other than what’s happening on the ice.
Jennifer is being polite with the chatter around her but her homemade curling rock toque betrays why she’s really here and what she’s really paying attention to. It’s Thursday afternoon at CN Centre at the World Women’s Curling Championship and she’s focused on what’s happening on the ice, even though Team Canada isn’t even playing this draw.
“Go, go, go, go…aw,” she says when the team she’s rooting for at the moment – Norway – misses a shot.
Jennifer is an outlier. Except for the young kids hauled out on a beautiful spring afternoon by their parents and/or grandparents (what a way to spend spring break, they must be thinking – I could be at the skate park), there are few people under 50 here. Jennifer is significantly younger than the small, rabid crowd of curling fans in attendance, most of whom appear to be retirees.
At 17, Jennifer already has nine years of curling under her belt. That explains why she’s taken a passionate interest in all of the elite, high-performance athletes at the peak of their careers in Prince George this week, not just Team Canada. Each one of them are her heroes and she’d do anything to be in their shoes this week.
She started playing growing up in Kitimat and was hoping a move to Prince George would further her curling career by being able to play in a bigger centre with other curlers. Sadly, Jennifer’s curling has been limited this season to coaching the Little Rocks program for the very young kids learning to curl and playing on an adult mixed doubles team with her brother.
Today, her work is explaining turns and the various team strategies to Auntie Lisa. Not a single one of the six teams on the ice are speaking English but Jennifer speaks curling. She understands what the conversation is about the next shot just from the finger pointing and where the skip puts the broom down.
“C’mon, c’mon,” Jennifer calls out as a shot from Team Japan is so light that the sweepers are working frantically to drag it across the hogline. It’s so close that the Team Norway skip calls out an official to measure. The rock stays and Norway is forced to peel the long guard off the centre line.
Between ends, Jennifer is pulled into a discussion about hair.
“Do you use a curling iron?” Sue’s husband, Lorne, calls out.
Jennifer, Sue and Lisa ignore him. The guys nearby laugh at the dad joke. “Curling” iron? Get it?
Jennifer misses her curling seasons in Kitimat. Before moving to Prince George three years ago, Jennifer was curling four days a week under the guidance and encouragement of passionate coaches. In her first two years of high school, she went to the provincial high school curling championships – as a lead in Grade 8 and as a third in Grade 9.
With no curling program at College Heights or any other local high school, Jennifer hasn’t been able to keep playing with her peers at the highest level.
Sue and Lisa are now sharing pictures of their grandchildren.
Jennifer is clapping excitedly. Japan has just thrown an excellent double takeout. It doesn’t matter that it’s created a problem for the Norwegians.
“I really hope she doesn’t make it,” she says, leaning forward as Norway’s skip comes out of the hack with the last rock of the end, facing three Japanese stones in the house.
So much for rooting for Norway.
Jennifer is just cheering for some great shots and claps respectfully when the Norwegian rock grabs a bite of the button for a single.
