Sinclair, Larouche join St-Georges

Former U.S. champion Jamie Sinclair and veteran Quebec competitor are joining Team Laurie St-Georges.

The team, dubbed “Rock Stars” made their announcement on Wednesday, posting a video to their social media accounts.

St-Georges confirmed she would remain as skip, with Sinclair and Larouche throwing third stones.

“That’s the plan,” St-Georges told The Curling News. “But I am very open about the positions.”

“That’s gonna be awesome,” said Mike Fournier, a columnist for The Curling News who skipped Quebec teams at three Brier championships.

“It’s a great addition. Quebec hasn’t had an import team in like … ever.” 

Sinclair, a dual citizen who was born in Alaska, competed in Ontario from 2006 to 2014, winning a Canada games title with Rachel Homan.

Sinclair then competed in the United States from 2014 through last season. She represented the U.S. in multiple competitions including the 2018 world championship in North Bay, where lost the bronze medal game to Russia, and the 2019 championship in Silkeborg, Denmark (6-6 won/loss record).

The 31-year-old also narrowly missed a chance to compete for the U.S. at last year’s Beijing Olympics. Sinclair teamed with Rich Ruohonen and lost the 2021 U.S. Olympic mixed doubles trials final 7-6 to the pairing of Vicky Persinger and Chris Plys.

Sinclair has been based in Manotick, Ont. since last summer and most recently spared for the Chelsea Carey team at Grand Slam events this season.

Sinclair is ineligible to compete in playdowns leading to Canadian championships until the 2024-25 season, which is one reason for Larouche’s inclusion in today’s announcement.

The veteran will take Sinclair’s spot as third for St-Georges for next season’s Quebec playdowns.

Larouche represented Quebec at 10 Scotties Tournament of Hearts championships between 2010 and 2019, winning silver in 2004 and bronze in 2009.

She also teamed with Jean-Michel Ménard to win the World Mixed championship title in October.

There’s been a blitzkrieg of team changes in the latter half of the current season, and more announcements took place on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week.

In Saskatchewan, Team Colton Flasch announced that Catlin Schneider “will be going in a different direction” and the remaining team members will continue together next season.

In Ottawa, site of this weekend’s world men’s curling championship, world junior skip Emily Deschenes has served notice of her interest in joining a women’s high-performance squad.

Deschenes is one of the guests in the latest (Mar. 29) episode of the From The Hack curling podcast, hosted in partnership with The Curling News.

In Newfoundland and Labrador, Team Greg Smith announced that Adam Boland is moving to alternate, and his regular team position is open: “if you’re interested, let’s chat!”

Meanwhile, the new Canadian mixed doubles champions are adding some veteran experience for their trip to the worlds in Gangneung.

Jennifer Jones and Brent Laing will be joined in South Korea by none other than Glenn Howard, who lost the Ontario Tankard final to Laing’s Mike McEwen foursome last month.

Laing played in eight Briers as a member of Team Howard between 2006 and 2013, winning twice, and also winning both subsequent world championship titles.