By Ben Hoppe
As last season came to a close, it became clear that waves of changes were coming to the United States women’s curling program. Many of the country's most prominent curlers decided to step back from the women's game for the season, including the entire U.S. Olympic team as well as the back end of the reigning national championship rink, Delaney Strouse and Maddie Bear.
Strouse and Bear's decisions left the sweeping duo of Sydney Mullaney and Anne O'Hara in need of teammates.
It might have seemed obvious they would need to be paired with a skip, and that may have also been the first inclination for USA Curling. Mullaney and O’Hara, however, had other ideas.
"Anne and I both knew, 'Sure it could work,' but neither of us felt like we needed a skip," Mullaney said. "Both of us felt like Anne could and should skip a team."
O’Hara pitched her case to USA Curling, and the two teammates were paired with Anya Normandeau and Ella Fleming when High Performance Program director Brad Gushue announced their national teams for the season.
It was up to O’Hara to helm a brand new team with limited skipping experience.
"I felt like Anne really took charge of that situation and understood her strengths and what it would bring to a team," shared her second and longtime teammate.
Even when she put on a strong voice and committed to growing as a leader, O’Hara still had to contend with her own thoughts. Her experience at the back end had primarily come as a vice skip, and she was nervous about how others might think about her after establishing herself as more of a front-end player.
"I was maybe a little anxious about how people would perceive me. 'Oh, she doesn’t know what she’s doing,' or, 'She doesn’t have what it takes,'" said the 24-year-old O’Hara, as she reflected on the beginning of the transition.
She quickly learned to block out those concerns and focus on herself and her team. O'Hara credited both national coach Cathy Overton-Clapham and team coach Courtney Benson for helping her make the move into the skip role. The two coaches guided O’Hara into seeing herself in the role and embracing the persona and characteristics required of a great skip.
It didn’t take long for her teammate to see those characteristics come to life.
"It’s a gift," Mullaney said. "You either have it, or you don't. You can either get in the hack and throw last rocks or you can't. And she can."
In that transition, O’Hara was permitted to be intense. She learned that it’s OK to make mistakes, and ultimately, to give herself grace when those mistakes are made.
Perhaps her most vital realization is that she wasn't alone. Teammates are there for a reason.
"A big part of getting into this role is not being afraid to be vulnerable," O’Hara said. "Yeah, calling the game and strategy and ice reading is my job, but it’s on the team as well."
Speeding up the transition
It would be understandable if there was a significant transition period for the new Team O'Hara. Mullaney is the only person on the team who remained in the same role as last season, and she has provided a steady, consistent presence for the group.
While a traditional change might have resulted in the more-experienced Mullaney moving to a back-end role, she stayed on the front end and provided a stabilizing presence on the broom during a time of change for everyone around her.
"(Sydney) has judged thousands of my rocks," O'Hara said. "Ella (Fleming) has done an incredible job learning my release, but just in the beginning, having someone very familiar with me in charge of my rocks for sweeping is big. It’s really important to me to have someone I trusted for so many years on the broom."
Mullaney, who was also recently drafted to Frontier Curling Club for Rock League, was lauded by her skip not just for her sweeping ability but for her high IQ, knowing where rocks can and can’t end up, a skill that will no doubt be valuable for season two of Rock League. She has also taken on a key operational role on the team, putting together their schedule and making sure everyone had action items during their weekly summer meetings.
"I felt very intentional about the events that we're playing in and felt like they gave us a really good chance to just find our game," she said. "I did expect to qualify for playoffs at the events we’ve been playing in, and I did expect to win quarterfinals. I learned early on in my curling career that if you don’t expect that, you won’t."
The schedule seems to have done just what Mullaney intended. After narrowly missing the playoffs due to a draw shot challenge tiebreaker in their first event, Team O’Hara has qualified for playoffs in four consecutive events. In the middle of that streak was the St. Paul Cashspiel, where O’Hara won the final over Satsuki Fujisawa to earn a satellite spot at the HearingLife National in Sydney, Nova Scotia.
To help prepare for their busy fall schedule, the team began practising in July. They met regularly for team building and team planning, and they also utilized their summer practices to scrimmage with Danny Casper, Caden Hebert, and Kevin Tuma's teams. It was in those scrimmages that O’Hara could already see the vision coming together.
"I knew we could have our expectations high, but it’s been great to have some deep playoff runs," O’Hara said. "We’re still looking to get better."
Embracing the Slam environment
The young team will have their hands full in Nova Scotia for their first Slam of the season, where they’re slated to face top teams in the world. The team is scheduled to face teams skipped by Kerri Einarson, Miku Nihira, Anna Hasselborg, and You-been Park, but O’Hara didn’t view the tough competition as a reason to count them out. She views the competition as a reason to show they should be counted in.
It’s a similar message to one she shared with her lead Fleming and vice Normandeau ahead of their St. Paul Cashspiel final against Fujisawa. She emphasized to her teammates to respect the ability, but mistakes will happen, and this is a team capable of winning.
For Mullaney and O’Hara, the Slam environment is nothing new, but it will be the first experience for Fleming and Normandeau. The veterans have talked with their teammates about what to expect and the unique experience of playing in a Grand Slam of Curling event.
For a team on tour, especially one from the United States, they’re not used to having crowded arenas, signing autographs after games, or playing just one game a day. Mullaney and O’Hara told their teammates to expect passionate and knowledgeable fans, and they want to feed off the energy. They’re preparing their teammates for the moment so they’re ready to meet that moment.
"I went through a whole season of just being glad to be there," Mullaney said. "It feels really good to get to try these events again with a different perspective. I’ve been there; now we want to win."
Gushue reached out to the team ahead of the Slam to assure them they can do well, and they need to approach the event with that mindset. Mullaney thought hearing that from their High Performance Program director was a valuable reality check.
"Even if we didn’t qualify by being a top-12 team in the world, we got there," Mullaney said. "You’ve got to go into every game thinking you can win it because why else are you there?"
The team has only been together a short time, but they’re already showing the promise Gushue had to be hoping some of his teams and players would show when he stepped into this role over the summer. The season has been off to a promising start, with everyone adjusting to roles for basically the first time. And even if things don’t go well, Mullaney knows it will be a week filled with growth for a team that has already started to show signs they’re ready to bloom.
"I’ve already seen with this team that win or loss, the main thing we focus on after a game is what we can do better," she said. "And there’s not a better stage for that than a Slam."
Ben Hoppe covers the American curling scene on his Substack, Stones and Stripes.
