Baby boom rocks top-ranked Team Lawes

Legendary second stone Jill Officer is out of retirement—again—and into the lineup for Team Kaitlyn Lawes as today’s Manitoba STOH championship gets underway at East St. Paul.

The top-seeded Lawes foursome recently saw the return of their skip, the former third for Jennifer Jones, after she gave birth to her first child in mid-December.

Third Selena Njegovan announced back in September that she and husband Connor were expecting their first child in March of 2023.

As a result, Njegovan is out and Officer, the 2014 Olympic champion, is in.

Since retirement, Officer has been called back to on-ice duty a few times. She currently works for CurlManitoba and also serves on the World Curling Federation’s athlete advisory group. 

She is now teammates with her niece, Kristin MacCuish, after years of battling each other on the ice. Over the previous quadrennial, Officer’s Team Jones faced Tracy Fleury’s squad which featured Njegovan and MacCuish.

Fleury now plays with Ontario’s Team Rachel Homan, who were 1-1 at the Ontario STOH at time of publication.

Resby Coutt’s The Curler reports that Officer herself might miss a game or two due to previous commitments.

Team Lawes is now underway with their first game against Emma Jensen of Winnipeg’s Heather club. According to the championship draw of the two-pool event, Lawes, Officer and Jocelyn Peterman aren’t scheduled to battle their former skip Jones until crossover play on Saturday.

Jones’ first match comes shortly after 12 noon local time Wednesday against Team Grace Beaudry of St. Vital.