(by Al Cameron, Calgary Herald)
CHARLOTTETOWN — Coaches need more than stopwatches and laptop computers at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts this year; they also need running shoes.
Thanks to a rule change introduced prior to this season, teams can no longer call timeouts during games. They still have two opportunities per 10-end game (and one more in an extra end) to seek input from their coaches, but the 73-minute time clock keeps running.
And that’s created the spectacle of coaches needing to run to get to their players, so as to waste as little time as possible.
Predictably, this is not playing to rave reviews among coaches.
“I don’t like the rule at all,” said longtime coach Earle Morris, who is working with Jennifer Jones’s Team Canada foursome. “It doesn’t really give you a chance to manage your time. Now it’s rush, rush, rush if you happen to be behind in time. And equally important, you don’t have that good amount of time to go out there and have a relaxed conversation with your team because you’re conscious of the fact that you’re eating up their time.”
It certainly became an issue on Thursday morning when both Heather Smith-Dacey of Nova Scotia and Shannon Kleibrink of Alberta had less than five minutes showing on the clock beginning in the 10th end — teams like to have at least seven minutes per end to properly discuss shots.
“I can’t stand that we can’t stop the clocks for the timeouts,” said Smith-Dacey, who won the game thanks partly to Kleibrink having to rush her last two draws. “We couldn’t take one. It kind of seems odd to have a coach and not be able to stop the clock. But I guess we have to play within the rules.”
That rule was changed to shorten games for television, said Danny Lamoureux, the Canadian Curling Association’s director of championship services, and will be examined after this season. The World Curling Federation allows just one coaching visit per game.