The phenomenal run that the Rachel Homan rink (with Sudbury native Tracy Fleury at vice) is currently enjoying has been excessively well documented.
In defending their Scotties Tournament of Hearts crown last week in Thunder Bay, Team Homan (which also includes the front end of Emma Miskew and Sarah Wilkes) extended their undefeated streak at the national women’s curling championships to an impressive 22 games.
The team will now get a chance to repeat as world champions come March 15th to 23rd in South Korea, an event in which they will yet again be favoured, ranked #1 in the world. After having posted a historic record of 67-7 one year ago, the curling juggernaut has ramped it up in 2024-2025, now at 67-4.
Opponents might want to take note of the fact that there is at least some belief the bar can still be raised higher, at least in some aspects.
“I think we were looking for constant improvement last week,” said Fleury. “There were some games when we had some misses and didn’t play our best, but we tried not to get discouraged.”
“Just learn from it and get better for the next game. We did win all of our games, but there was still a lot of learning.”
Now in their third year together, Team Homan have easily exceeded in their most optimistic of visions of how things might click – in no small part due to the willingness of Tracy Fleury to not only make the move to vice-skip, but to embrace the role as only she can do.
On a personal level, there is much to be said for the fit that finds Fleury and Homan as the dynamic back-end duo of one of proving to be one of the greatest women’s curling rinks of all time.
“Sometimes when I was skipping, I would put too much pressure on myself and would have a harder time being as positive as my personality tends to be,” she said. “I think in this role at third, my personality can come through more easily in that support role.”
“Sometimes, you’re kind of like a caddie out there,” Fleury continued. “I try and do my best to make her (Homan’s) shot easier, to work with her and help her make her shots. That, In find, has been really fun.”
Fun – and never to be taken for granted.
“I am surprised all the time,” said Fleury of their success. “This is really a dream come true to win these championships. You aspire to win for so long, so this has really been rewarding.”
If anything, the larger challenge that may lie ahead is when there is no further upside to some of their accomplishments. Hard to imagine Team Homan improving upon a #1 in the world ranking. Awfully difficult to walk away as anything that sits beyond Scotties champion or World champion.
When the only possible move is an inevitable step backwards, at some point in time, the ability to deal with the mental side of the game can take a toll.
“I think we do a good job of sticking to our process and the training and trying to shut out much of the outside noise,” Fleury admitted.
For now, the 38 year old graduate of Lockerby Composite looks to the worlds and the chance to continue to build on the experience that she garnered one year ago in Sydney, Nova Scotia.
“Wearing the Maple Leaf can be pretty intimidating at first, just because you want to represent the country so well,” said Fleury. “The experience of doing it before helps. And the schedule at Worlds is pretty gruelling, so having been through that last season will help as well.”
