Family values: Horgan family cheering on three kids at Olympic trials

Kathy and Gerry Horgan sit in the upper level, high above the ice at SaskTel Centre to watch an afternoon draw of the highest-stakes curling in Canada.

You don’t have to tell them about the implications of the 2021 Tim Hortons Curling Trials.

The couple is in Saskatoon to watch three of their children play.

Gerry sits a few rows over from his wife. The lifelong coach tends to like his space as he picks apart his daughter’s performance, charts each shot and writes comments to hopefully tell her afterwards.

He no longer allows himself to get nervous, at least not until the playoffs begin on the weekend.

“At least not as much as before,” he said. “You only have so many nerves inside of you. You can’t keep going like that, being stressed out, so you get used to it. You have to sit back and relax or it takes the fun out of it for you too.”

His daughter, Tracy Fleury, is based out of East St. Paul, Man. and is the skip of the No. 1-ranked women’s team in the world. The 35-year-old skip was 7-0 after Thursday’s action at the trials and is already assured a spot in Sunday’s final as part of a banner year for her team.

Tanner, 23, is skip of a team out of Kingston, Ont., on the men’s side that also includes his brother, 21-year-old Jacob, as the alternate.

All three children grew up with their father coaching them during their many road trips during the winter months. Now Fleury has a coach for that, and it’s not her dad any longer.

“It’s hard to sit back, relax and be a fan when you coached them for 20 years,” he said, peering into his binoculars to get a closer look at the action. “After each game there was a debrief. You know your chance is coming to at least express your opinion.

“As I always say, the main role of a coach is to work himself out of a job, and I’ve kind of done that.”

While there are no official stats for this occasion, it is believed the trio are the first siblings to compete at the Olympic trials simultaneously on different sides of the draw.

Trying to accomplish a lifelong dream of qualifying for the Olympics is already a rare feat, but doing it with two siblings alongside makes this year’s event in Saskatoon that much more special.

“It’s really cool. It’s fun to have my brothers here and have my parents cheer us on. You can definitely feel the family support here,” Fleury said.

It hasn’t been the week the boys were hoping for. Heading into the final day, Team Horgan sits at the bottom of the standings with one win and five losses after making it to Saskatoon as the final qualifier earlier this year.

Once Tanner is off the ice, Kathy and Gerry stretch their legs and get set to watch Fleury in another game.

The one constant is knowing their old coach isn’t too far away.

“He loves the game, he loves talking about curling and has a good eye for the game, so he does have a lot of good feedback,” Fleury said. “He lets us do our thing … but he will have an observation here or there.”

Gerry got all the kids, including Fleury’s older sister Jen, involved in curling when they were five years old.

Watching his children play in the most competitive curling moments of their careers helps spark those memories.

“Sometimes we went away for 15 weekends out of a winter. You spend a lot of family time together. It was our family vacation as well as coming away to curling. We do our vacations in the winter. We’ve seen every small town in northern Canada,” he said.

Back then, he knew how to entice his children to keep the sport interesting.

“I used to tell them, ‘You have to have a good time because you’re not going to win anything at this age,’ ” he said as the children always asked to travel and play more.

“That’s great. We’re going to keep doing it because you can’t go wrong with a holiday with a little curling on the side.”

For Kathy, seeing the kids realize their dreams no matter how lofty they seemed at the time is surreal.

“You hope for the best for your children, you support them in all their dreams and definitely it’s something that they want. If not this year, one day,” she said. “(I’m) just so proud of them and excited for them.”

Gerry wasn’t so confident one of his children could be one win away from representing Team Canada at the Olympics when they were youngsters slipping on the ice back home in Sudbury.

“Could you call it a dream? I think it was more of a fantasy,” he said. “Mind you, these three, they were very good very young. It’s a totally different skill set when you’re young. When you get to this level, the mental part of the game becomes more and more important.”