Jolene Campbell ready to return to Scotties: The Green Zone

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

THE GREEN ZONE: This will be your sixth trip. What’s this one like?

JOLENE CAMPBELL: This one’s so good. I went the first three as an alternate, and they were awesome with Amber’s team. They were kind of like family. Those were really neat experiences and then to win (the provincials) in 2016 as the first one is amazing. In 2022, we lost the (provincial) final, so that’s just a bummer. It’s just been a long haul. We’ve been so close so many times, I think since 2016, I’ve lost the final a couple of times, and been in the semi and been right in the mix. So I feel like it’s really nice to get back. You kind of start to think maybe you’re not going to get back. I might be the oldest competitor there, actually, so when you’re getting to that point, every season could kind of be the last one.

What is the schedule look like this time around compared to past years, is it? Is it harder for you now?

CAMPBELL: It’s tough. Three of us have kids, and we’re on the go and work full-time, or are entrepreneurs. It’s a lot, and it’s hard. We were talking about how it’s hard to keep up with the teams that are doing it kind of full-time. So we do everything we can so that we know when we get to the Scotties — it wasn’t just to win provincials for us, it’s about being competitive when we get on that national stage. We feel like we can make a really good run at a title.

What’s going on in the water at the Highland? The finalists of the women’s (provincials) were both Highland and of course, Kelly Knapp, the provincial champion. What’s going on over there?

CAMPBELL: I mean, it could be the burgers, but, you know what? I love the Highland. I’m a small-town girl, and it just has that vibe. Darren makes great ice. Brad always makes sure we get some time to get on there. Everybody’s just always kind of helping out. It’s just a great club. I don’t know, it’s a great community there. I love playing there. I play with my kids there on Friday nights. It’s great. Having good ice conditions to practise on is obviously important. We saw how that paid off for us this year.

Robyn comes on board this year. She was out of Alberta last year. I think it was 10 years ago you curled together on a team. So what brought the three-time provincial champion on board?

CAMPBELL: Her, Dana and I all played together in the past. (Abby-Gail Ackland), who had been third for me the last few years, actually moved out to Kamloops. So it was a no-brainer. I kind of said to Dana, “Do you think Robyn would play?” They’ve been friends forever. They curled together a lot. We just reached out to her. She was pretty pumped to get back to Saskatchewan and was interested in taking a shot at playing third and then found out she’s really enjoying not having to throw that last one. It’s so great to have another skip with that kind of experience. We’re very like-minded out there and it just was like a really natural fit for both of us. She definitely helps me be at my best. I feel like this was probably the best season I’ve played in in a while.

Less than a week, you’re on a plane out to Mississauga. So that’s a wild ride. Don’t have a lot of time to prep, like Kelly Knapp does for the Brier. Rachel Holman is not in it. She’s going to the Olympics. Does this feel like going into this Scotties that it’s a wide open field?

CAMPBELL: (Kerri Einarson’s rink) has been playing really well. They’re going to be a favourite. She’s won it a million times. But we have that experience, I think, between Robyn and me, it’ll be our 10th trip, right? So when you’ve been there and you know what to expect, and you know what it’s about, that helps a lot. We haven’t played a ton of the teams just because we stayed close to home this year, but we’re familiar with most of them. We feel pretty confident going in there that we can have a good round-robin and make it to that next round, and that’s all you need to do, right? You get through to the next round and then the next round and we all know what playoff games look like, right? They’re always close. People would have said we were a favourite on Sunday and we went into that game knowing we wanted to be tied up with hammer coming home. That’s the plan in any big game, in any final, that’ll be our plan in every game we play at the Scotties, right? It’s not a lot of super well-known teams, but it’s a lot of really good teams there. I think it’s going to be an exciting week, for sure.

How much matchup looking are you doing?

CAMPBELL: I haven’t really looked at it yet because there just hasn’t been time, but I have an idea of who’s in our pool. We’ll do a little bit of that. It doesn’t change a whole bunch with us, right? We have a pretty good game plan of how we want to approach things and how we believe we’re at our best as a team. It won’t change a whole lot. We try not to look too far ahead. We’re very much a team. It’s just one shot at a time and you just do that over and over and over, right?

What’s the biggest shift for a Scotties compared to a regular spiel? What’s the one hurdle that the younger curlers really need to get over when they arrive at this national championship?

CAMPBELL: That’s hard to say. You definitely just want to feel like you’ve done everything you can going into it, right? One thing we talk about on our team is high support and nothing left unsaid. If there’s anything we need to address about the team, about family coming, I want to go to dinner here, I want to do this, I want to fit this in, just everything goes on the table. Everything gets planned out when we’re going to eat, when we’re going to eat with family, when we’re going to spend time with friends. We signed up for the Schmirler telethon. There’s just no surprises, right? We do the same thing at provincials. Like you map out the whole week. We just make a plan. It’s a good idea to do that. So then the Scotties doesn’t feel different. We try to approach everything the same. That would be my best advice to younger players — just approach every event the same way and then it doesn’t feel different.

Where is Curling at, not just in Saskatchewan, but the growth of the sport overall?

CAMPBELL: I think it is growing. I think the Olympics, I think across the world. When you look at the slams, there are fewer and fewer Canadian teams all the time. I think around the world, the sport’s really growing. Other places are doing new things to grow the sport that we maybe have never done in Canada, but I think there’s a lot of opportunity there. I think at the highest level, the numbers are never going to get back to where they were when we had to go play northern and get out of your club. It’s just it’s too hard to keep up. People don’t want to get to a tankard and then have Kelly Knapp and Rylan Kleiter stomp on them, right? Nobody wants to take 10 days off work and spend a bunch of money to go do that anymore. I think there’s a lot of opportunity for the sport to grow at a different level.

You were an alternate in 2011 with Amber Holland and won the whole darn thing. What would that be like again?

CAMPBELL: It would be pretty special. Worlds are (in Canada), which would be cool. We think it’s attainable. We’re putting all the work in and we know what it takes. We have a really good understanding of it’s going to be really difficult, but I’ve seen it done. I’ve been part of a great team that did it. It would be the coolest thing to have Maple Leaf back on.