Scotties 2013: Colleen Jones goes back for “seconds”

"Sweeping’s easy," says Colleen Jones over the phone, just after a practice session in Digby, Nova Scotia. "They say skips can’t sweep but I’m gonna change people’s perception of that," she adds with a chuckle.

Jones, 6-time winner of the Canadian Women's Curling Championship as a skip, returns to The Scotties for the first time since 2006, only this time her role has changed. Instead of commanding the house and calling the shots, she's a part of Nova Scotia's front end, playing second for a team skipped by longtime teammate Mary-Anne Arsenault.

She's fine with the switch, too. “I’m havin’ a ball," she says with obvious enthusiasm.

To say Jones is coming full circle at this year's gathering of the finest women curlers in Canada might be a bit of a stretch, but there are some dusty memories from long ago that seem at least vaguely familiar for her as she prepares for the looming 2013 Scotties.

“Well, it was in the last century, many, many years ago," she said when asked to tell the tale of the last time she played front end at a national championship. The year was 1979 and Jones was part of a team skipped by Penny Larocque.

"I was, I think, the youngest competitor at the Canadian championships at the time. 19 years and 3 months or something. It was in Montreal. Really kind of early, early days of women’s curling. It was primitive in comparison. Primitive in terms of what the arena looked like. Really different times back then. We played in Montreal and there were no fans in the stands except maybe, 200 people."

As a curling youngster, Jones remembers, she and the rest of the front enders had to deal with whapping the heck out of a corn broom in order to try and effect the rock in some way shape or form. It was a punishing, punishing discipline.

“I remember sweeping with a corn broom at junior championships and having my hands bleed. Sweeping with anything that is not a corn broom is easy sweeping for me," she said, laughing.

Now, at the age of 53, Jones has had to make the change from spending so many years of basically sweeping rocks a short distance in the house, to having to lean on the broom over distances much greater.

“I’m sweeping all the way down," she said insistently, lest there be any question in the minds of the doubters.