Husband-wife Sluchinski team chases Canada’s doubles curling title

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History on the ice, and history off the ice.

Aaron and Amanda Sluchinski hope it leads to new history for them at the 2024 Canadian Mixed Doubles Curling Championship.

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A winning one, specifically, is what the married couple from Airdrie aim to write up.

“Yeah … I think it’s a winning script,” said Aaron, just hours ahead of Sunday’s start to the national gala in Fredericton, N.B.

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“We have fun together anyway.”

That’s good, because it’s not every day spouses can make it work as teammates and have a good time doing it.

But the Sluchinskis are proving it can happen, recalling the magic of yesteryear — they were Alberta College Athletic Conference champions together once upon a time — to win the Alberta playdowns last month and earn a berth in the Canadian mixed doubles event.

“Yeah … it’s kind of been a good dynamic actually just in terms of her kind of being out of the game for a while,” said Aaron, 36. “She just lets me take the lead, and I tell her exactly what I need from everything, and she does it and does well at it.

“If I said that to other partners, they’d probably just tell me where to go. So it’s worked well for us so far.”

The trick now is kicking it up a notch in the pursuit of Canadian curling glory.

After all, there are some grand names at nationals.

In fact, Brent Laing and Jennifer Jones — the defending champs — will be there.

As will Calgary’s Brett Gallant and Jocelyn Peterman — the 2019 winners and finalists last year.

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Both are married couples, as well.

“I feel like I’m wildly unqualified,” said 35-year-old Amanda, who’s spent the years since her curling-infused college life with the MacEwan Griffins focusing on her career and being a mother to kids Lincoln, 8, and Evelyn, 3.

“Once I graduated out of juniors, I played a couple of years of women’s, but then I was going back to working full-time and I wanted to go back to school full-time. And when you compete, you want to be able to put all the time in to it to be successful, and I didn’t feel like that was possible. So I took a step back and I’ve just been kind of playing for fun for like — gosh, I don’t know — what a decade, 15 years? I always try to keep my toe a little bit in it and still playing.”

But it wasn’t until the kids got a little older and Aaron started to fully commit to curling that the drive for the game fully arrived again for Amanda.

And it opened right up when Brittany Tran — Aaron’s partner last year at mixed nationals — had to set aside doubles provincial duties for the important task of trying to win the 2023 Scotties Tournament of Hearts with Alberta’s Kayla Skrlik.

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Husband and wife teamed up for that Alberta mixed action and then decided to renew their full-time partnership on the ice this season.

“When Aaron started playing doubles, I was like, ‘That looks like fun,’” Amanda said. “Then you kind of get hooked back on that competitive feel of like, ‘Oh, I’m back in it — this feels really good.’ And so we were able to make it work that we played together this year.

“But it’s really fun filling out those player profiles (for the mixed doubles nationals) when it’s ‘What are your recent accomplishments?’” continued Amanda. “It’s like, ‘I don’t really have any — can we go back 20 years?’ So playing in provincials and winning them, I finally have a recent accomplishment to put on a player profile.”

Plus she’s got that beautiful new Wild Rose shirt and jacket, with ’SLUCHINSKI’ stitched across the back to match her husband’s, further confirming that she’s back on the big stage.

“I finally have my own Alberta jacket,” said Amanda excitedly. “When it showed up the other day, I was pretty excited to rip into that box and try on that stuff. But I think it’ll be a little different getting there and actually wearing it at that competition.”

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That begins for the Sluchinskis against Greg and Lauren Cheal — not married but siblings — from Lennoxville, Que., early Sunday (7 a.m. MT, plus.curling.ca).

It’s their first of seven round-robin contests in the 24-team, four-pool nationals hosted by Aitken University Centre and the Capital Winter Club.

A total of 12 duos — the top three in each pool — advance to the playoff round, beginning Thursday.

The champions will be then crowned after Friday’s finale (10 a.m. MT).

“There isn’t a ton of like slam-level players, but there’s a ton of good teams that play mixed doubles all year,” said Aaron, who saw many of those top-notch curlers at the Brier earlier this month. “You have many of the top 20 teams in Canada all competing in it and then another 12 that won their province. So you’ve got all the top teams in Canada — maybe not the top overall talent — but no games are going to be easy. Especially in mixed doubles, anything can happen. So you just kind of have to find your groove and probably have to win five out of your seven games in your pool to make playoffs.”

“You can’t go in thinking that any game is gonna be easy,” added Amanda, who knows her relationship with Aaron allows her to “call him on some of his stuff on the ice sometimes. “I feel comfortable doing that. My biggest thing is Aaron has a ton of experience on some of the arena ice and those conditions, whereas I’ve had a lot less, so I’m going to definitely rely on him on that. And he’s been practising with me trying to get me all competition-ready, but I think I have a sense of what it’s going to be.

“I’m excited. It’s gonna be great. I’m looking forward to it.”

tsaelhof@postmedia.com

http://www.x.com/ToddSaelhofPM

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