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In part one of a two-part conversation with curling sensation Jace Freeman, the young star shared how he fell in love with the game, what it was like growing up at different positions on teams, and more.
Freeman says he got into curling rather young and it all has to do with his surroundings. "It would all be because of my dad, my mom and my brother, actually," he says with a smile. "They curl competitively while I was growing up. My dad curled competitively for a long time, so he started taking me to the rink when I was four or five years old. I'd be at all the rinks there watching him in the Men's Provincials and then watching my mom in the Women's Provincials, it was something I grew up with and it's been a part of my whole life."
Loving the game as a youngster, Freeman explains he was able to grasp the strategy that goes into the game also rather quickly. "Probably when I first started to play with my brother, he was a good junior curler himself. In his last year of juniors, he got me on his team, I was about 14-years-old and that's when I first started playing competitively. That was when I learned what curling was really about when it comes to the strategy of the game.
Being the older brother, Brooks was the skip, that gave younger brother Jace a chance to learn as a lead, something he says has helped him in the years since. "The rest of the team was all 20-years-old actually, so it was an incredible learning experience getting to play lead. That's when I started really getting into it. I'd watch games on TV or YouTube, watching other teams we played. I picked up on the strategy as we went. I worked my way through all the positions. I've played a provincial at every position, actually. You pick up things from each position and pick up things."
Now that he's a skip, Freeman believes those years spent learning all of what makes a team tick has helped him immensely. "Oh yeah, I think so for sure. I mean, every position has an input. Most of my teams actually are career back-enders or skips, that's kind of how we form them. Everyone has the experience at all the positions, front-end or skip, so we all understand the finer points of the game."
Being on a quality team at 14 and getting to the provincials throughout the years, Freeman says that experience has been key to helping him get to where he is today. "It was huge. For sure, if I wasn't at those provincials that young, I don't know if I'd done any of this, really. We played against some of the best teams when I was just 14. It gives you the confidence that you can play with anybody. It was a huge experience and I'm thankful to Brooks for putting me as lead. If I didn't play those years with those teams, who knows what would have happened."
As he's gone about things over the years, the mental library of Jace Freeman has been filled with curling scenario's and he's loved every minute of it. "It's changed over the years. When I first started skipping when I was younger, we didn't have the ability as the guys you see on TV, so we had to call a different game, maybe play more simple. After all these years, you see the way they see the game and you replicate what they're doing. I've been watching games for so long, I have a pretty good idea of what I want to do and even when I'm not playing, I'm learning."
In part two with Jace Freeman, he gets into how he became a skip of his own team, going through what was an incredible season, and looking into the future.