Mike Harris aims to keep things cool as he gets set to coach Scotland at the World Men's Curling Championship

Mike Harris has some adjusting to do.

It's not just the time change after a long flight to Switzerland, either. The Olympic silver medallist (1998) has only ever worn the maple leaf at international competitions in the past. At this year's World Men's Curling Championship, however, he'll be decked out in blue.

“It’s gonna be weird putting on a Scotland jersey, I’ll tell you that right now," he said as he waited for his overseas flight to board. "It’s gonna be odd for me to put on another country’s uniform for a world championship.”

Harris, most often seen and heard as a commentator on Sportsnet's Grand Slam of Curling coverage, has been moonlighting this season. Since last autumn, he has been coaching Tom Brewster's team from Aberdeen and perhaps not coincidentally, it is Brewster's crew that will be representing Scotland at The Worlds, in Basel, beginning this weekend. So Harris will plunk himself down on the coaches' bench, with a Team Scotland jacket on to keep him warm.

His girlfriend, Catherine, who is accompanying him on the trip, will not be joining him in making that fashion statement. “She said ‘I’m not doing that,'" Harris related. "I said 'you can cheer for Team Canada for every game except Scotland.'"

That may not have worked. As is often the case with Harris, you don't know if he's kidding, but he reports that Catherine went so far as to purchase a red hat with moose antlers specifically for the Scotland vs Canada game.

Harris is not nearly the first Canadian coach to help an overseas team. That's been going on for years but over the last few it seems as though it's become even more of an epidemic. Both finalists (Switzerland and Japan) at the World Women's Curling Championship, which wrapped up last weekend, are coached by Canadians. While some of the coaches who have taken on international jobs have had to help build programs from the ground up, Harris is joining a traditional curling stronghold, with a very specific task to take on.

“A lot of team dynamics stuff," Harris said, offering a glimpse into what Team Brewster has had him do this season. "My job’s really to keep them in the moment and keep them upbeat and positive. And doing everything they can do, off the ice in order to be at their best on the ice."

“I think, obviously, some of (Team Brewster's) success has to be attributed to Mike," said Team Canada lead Ben Hebert, noting that success isn't always easy for a first year team to find. "He’s a super smart guy," he added of Harris. "He’s always been a really good skip.”

Tom Brewster is the skip of the Scottish champions, well-known on the world scene. In both 2011 and 2012, he skipped his country to silver medals at the worlds and was an alternate at the Sochi Olympics, when Scotland scored another silver. This season, the 41-year-old (he'll turn 42 the day the championship final is played) formed a new team with third Glen Muirhead, second Ross Paterson and lead Hammy McMillan Jr.

New Scottish Curling Federation rules mean that teams can now pick their own coaches and Brewster put out the call to Harris, who has helped guide the team in six events this season.

"They're all really good players," said Harris. “Tom’s a very good skip in his own right. I don’t do a lot of note taking when it comes to strategy and stuff with him, which is great. That’s a good sign. Only once or twice have I written anything down, strategically, that I really disagreed with, where some of the other coaches I’ve worked beside are kind of taking notes feverishly throughout the entire game. That’s not been an issue for me.”

Being technically and strategically sound is something that every team must have, of course. What they must also have is a good dynamic or team personality and that is where Harris has come in. Brewster has had a bit of a reputation for being an emotional sort (Harris, too, had that characteristic in his earlier days) and if it has gotten in the way of ultimate success on the world stage, seems he'd like to remedy that.

“Specifically, I do a lot of stuff with them from the standpoint of team dynamic," Harris said, pointing out that his work has to do with much more than just how the skip is running things. "They’re all pretty emotional guys. So if they have anything upset the cart, sort of thing, I watch how they react to it, very closely. That’s where I help them most.”

"It’s my job to make sure that they stay pretty even-keeled. They did that very, very well at the Scottish Championship, I must say.”

It was at The Scottish Championship where Team Brewster knocked off David Murdoch's rink by a score of 5-4 in the final. “The difference in the team now and where they were in October, just from a teamwork standpoint, it’s kinda night and day which is very encouraging,” said Harris, who mic'd up the players during the early portion of the season so he could hear how they interacted."

“I said to Tom: ‘When you get emotional, your team gets emotional. They become afraid to talk to you... you’re mad at them...’ all that kind of snowballs. I said to the guys ‘you can’t take anything personally out there.’ That’s where you start getting even more emotional.”

Harris pointed to the Russian women's team as an example of having a steely, grounded demeanor on the ice. They are sometimes criticized for the lack of emotion they show but Harris says “that’s a great way to curl.”

Another curler he pointed to as a good example of that: Kevin Koe, the man who'll skip Canada at this world championship. Scotland meets Canada on Monday and that might be the time of the week where Harris could feel most strange. As to whether his presence gives Scotland some kind of advantage going in, well, he doubts that.

“I don’t know that there’s an advantage," Harris said. "I think the biggest thing is that I’ve seen them (Canada) play a ton of times. So there’s that. But the biggest thing for any team in playing those guys is they have to take advantage when they don’t play perfect.”

“I don’t know what scouting report he’s gonna give them about us," joked Hebert. "'Jump in front of their rocks’? We don’t have any glaring weaknesses or anything like that.”

Harris laughed appreciatively when told of those comments. “My guys are gonna have to take care of any opportunities," he said. "If they even come up.”

If they do, Harris aims to ensure the team in blue is calm, cool and collected in the face of that opportunity.

Even if it has him feeling "weird" and no matter who the lady in the moose antlers is rooting for.