Stark difference in team recruitment

They’re both from Manitoba.

They both slide on their toe, in curling’s famed tuck delivery.

One is returning home, while the other is bouncing to a second straight out-of-province squad for next season.

The tale of two more team announcements—concerning Mike McEwen and Kate Cameron—offers some similarities, but the net result couldn’t be more different.

McEwen is on the move again, to Saskatchewan, and his eight-month flirtation with Ontario is already a memory.

McEwen has joined Saskatchewan’s Colton Flasch and the Marsh brothers, Kevin and Dan.

McEwen will skip, with Flasch dropping to third.

The former Team Flasch had recently announced that Catlin Schneider was moving on.

(Flasch recently teamed with Kelly Schafer and Chris and Teejay Haichert to win the Saskatchewan mixed title.)

Meanwhile, Cameron is heading back to her home province as a skip.

The former third for Alberta skips Casey Scheidegger and Laura Walker—as well as Allison Flaxey, Michelle Englot and Kristy McDonald—is bringing Taylor McDonald along to form a new squad with two members from last year’s most surprising Manitoba women’s team.

Meghan Walter and Mackenzie Elias have signed up, after parting ways with Abby Ackland and Sara Oliver.

Cameron hasn’t skipped since the 2013-14 season.

Back to McEwen for a second.

He recovered from a poor season to put together an excellent run to the Ontario Tankard and then the London Brier, where he finished fourth.

But in the end, he played in Ontario for just a heartbeat and is abruptly moving on to the wheat sheaf province.

He ended up competing with one teammate—the late acquisition Joey Hart—in just two events. That encompassed about three weeks in total.

It just seems a bit too much for yours truly, a curling semi-traditionalist rapidly approaching codger status.

Yes, I’m used to watching team lineup changes fly at a breakneck pace, along with the residency rules that seem to change with the wind.

I get it.

But for whatever reason, this one has me shaking my head. It almost feels like a last straw.

I’m not alone. There was an uptick in similar fan comments, and a few memes of luggage covered in travel stickers.

McEwen is a big fan of curling history, the lore and legacies. If one could travel back in time, to the era of his longtime ’Toba team of B.J. Neufeld, Matt Wozniak and Denni Neufeld—and inform him about his future seasons in Ontario and Sasky—I honestly think he’d wince a little.

This is no criticism of Mike’s decision nor his newest teammates. The 42-year-old has three talented guys in their early 30s on board—so he has technically recruited young— and it’s all clearly legitimate. 

The back-end dynamic should be interesting, and they should make some noise.

But contrast this with Cameron’s move home, where the 31-year-old, along with Taylor (29) has recruited even younger talent.

Walter is only 21—she won a world mixed title at just 19—while Elias is 22.

This new team has actually played together once before. Back in December, the Scheidegger sisters had to drop out of the Masters Grand Slam in Oakville, and Walter and Elias stepped in.

The foursome, with Cameron at the tee, went 2-2 in their pool and then lost a tiebreaker to Chelsea Carey.

It’s ironic to think that Cameron’s recruitment strategy is now considered “old school.”

She and Taylor will be mentors, molding and shaping their very young teammates in an effort to break deeper into the bigs. It rings familiar with Jennifer Jones’ successful merger with Mackenzie Zacharias’ former junior whiz kids.

In today’s curling world, where big names seem to recycle themselves within various tiered groups, this feels like a breath of fresh air.

*      *      *

In other new team bulletins, a young Winnipeg men’s squad has called it quits.

Team Braden Calvert have split up after five seasons. There’s no word yet on where Calvert, Kyle Kurz and Robbie Gordon—who played with Reid Carruthers at the Brier—will end up, but second Ian McMillan has signed on with Northern Ontario’s Tanner Horgan.

McMillan will replace the retiring Colin Hodgson and joins Tanner, his brother Jacob and third Darren Moulding.

Meanwhile, a new Team Selena Sturmay has revealed its lineup.

The Edmonton skip and teammate Paige Papley now have former Kelsey Rocque third Danielle Schmeimann on board, as well as former B.C. player Dezaray Hawes, who spent seven seasons with the two-time STOH rep Team Corryn Brown.

Rocque herself just landed in Manitoba, and will play with Team Beth Peterson. They’ll debut the new lineup shortly, at the SGI Best of the West tournament starting Apr. 30 in Saskatoon.

Like Flasch, Peterson and McMillan (along with McMillan’s now-former teammate Kurz) just captured their provincial mixed championship title.

In Toronto, the John Epping squad has parted ways with front-ender Scott Chadwick and added Jason Camm, the younger brother of third Mat Camm.

Finally, at least for now, Sarah Wilkes of Team Rachel Homan is on the bench due to her pregnancy and her spot in the last two Grand Slams of the season will be filled by Alberta’s Rachelle Brown.

Brown and Wilkes were teammates on Chelsea Carey’s 2019 STOH-winning squad, which stole the 10th and 11th ends from Homan in a memorable finish.