With the 2025 Montana’s Canadian Curling Trials quickly approaching, TSN.ca will profile one men’s team and one women’s team each day before the first rocks fly on Nov. 22 at the Scotiabank Centre in Halifax.
Team Rachel Homan
Lineup
Skip: Rachel Homan (Age 36)
Third/Vice-Skip: Tracy Fleury (39)
Second: Emma Miskew (36)
Lead: Sarah Wilkes (35)
Alternate: Rachelle Brown (39)
Coach: Heather Nedohin
Curling Club: Ottawa Curling Club
2025-26 Season
Events: 6 Record: 35-6 World Ranking: 1st
Highlights: Team Homan won all three Grand Slams – the Masters in September, the Tour Challenge in October and the Lake Tahoe Slam in November – by beating Swiss rivals Team Silvana Tirinzoni in the final each time. They also won the PointsBet Invitational for a third consecutive season.
How They Qualified
Became the first time to qualify for the Montana’s Canadian Curling Trials when they won the 2024 Scotties Tournament of Hearts in Calgary, beating Team Jennifer Jones in the final.
Trials Schedule
Nov. 23 – Christina Black, Kayla Skrlik
Nov. 25 – Corryn Brown, Kaitlyn Lawes
Expert Analysis from TSN’s Cathy Gauthier
Team Homan will have a successful week at the Canadian Curling Trials if…
“They just stay the course and not try to do anything different. They have been dominant for the last three seasons.”
Team Story
Does anybody have a chance at dethroning The Homan Empire at the Canadian Curling Trials?
If the past two years-plus is another indication, the likelihood is low.
Since the start of the 2023-24 season, Team Homan owns a 171-19 record, highlighted by two victories at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts and World Women’s Curling Championship as well as seven Grand Slam titles and eight straight Grand Slam finals reached.
They qualify for the final in just about every event they play and have held the world No. 1 ranking for some time by over 100 points.
Simply put, no team in the long history of curling has been this dominant for this length of time. Not even close.
“She got all the shots,” third Tracy Fleury said of her skip after winning the World Women’s Curling Championship last year in Uijeongbu, South Korea. “That’s why she’s so scary to play against, because she can throw the peels, clear four rocks, or she can draw the pin whenever we need it.
“She’s a weapon.”
Despite the tremendous success, Team Homan still has one more goal to cross off their list: capturing Olympic gold.
Homan and Emma Miskew were at the Pyeongchang Olympics in 2018 and missed the playoffs after a slow start. At the Canadian Curling Trials in Regina four years ago, Team Homan finished dead last with a 2-6 record, a fact that seems remarkable given how the current generation of her team has performed in recent memory.
Fleury skipped her own team at those 2021 Trials and was a shot away from representing Canada at the Olympics but wrecked on a guard to hand Jennifer Jones the win in an extra end.
It’s safe to say Team Homan will be motivated to find redemption in Halifax following the 2021 Trials.
The 36-year-old Homan will look to qualify for a third straight Winter Games after competing in the mixed doubles competition four years ago in Beijing, missing the playoffs with partner John Morris.
Homan and company enter the 2025 Trials as the undisputed favourites with four-time Tournament of Hearts champion Kerri Einarson and her Gimli, Man., rink being the biggest threat.
Einarson defeated Homan in the 2020 and 2021 Scotties finals while Homan returned the favour last year in Thunder Bay.
Team Homan is 11-0 against Canadian teams and 6-0 against Trials teams this season, including 1-0 against Team Einarson. The Ottawa foursome is a remarkable 80-2 against Canadian teams since the start of the 2023-24 season.
Einarson was the lone Canadian team to beat Homan last year, picking up a 5-4 victory in the final of the Tour Challenge in October of 2024. However, Team Einarson dropped their next five matches with Team Homan in 2024-25 and has won only twice in 12 head-to-head clashes since the start of 2023-24.
They’ll play each other in the round-robin finale on Nov. 26.
A matchup in the final between these two curling rivals seems like the most likely outcome. Einarson has beaten Homan before but will now need to best the Ottawa skip twice in three games under the new format.
The 2025 Montana’s Canadian Curling Trials is Team Homan’s to lose.
About the Author
