Rachel Homan rink set to take on the men at Grand Slam of Curling's Elite 10

Well, here's something you don't see every day. Or year.

The Grand Slam of Curling's Elite 10, introduced as a men's competition last season, will be contested again this year in largely the same manner when it is held in Victoria, B.C., March 17th to 20th. However, there will be a big difference: While the field will be dominated by masculinity, there will be one women's team taking part.

Team Rachel Homan, upset at the Ontario Women's Championship and, therefore, not taking part in this week's Scotties in Grand Prairie, Alberta, will do their level best to explode the largely accepted thinking that women's teams can't keep up with the sport's men's teams (don't shoot the messenger).

We'll see how much water that theory holds, although Homan maintains she and her teammates are not out to land a haymaker in any ongoing battle of the sexes. Carry the flag for all women in the fight for equality? Nah.

“It’s a great opportunity for our team and for women in sports," Homan says, when asked about the pressure of making a larger point. "But we don’t have to prove anything. We’re excited to compete with them and hopefully win a couple of games. Learn a lot as well.”

I pressed the issue just a little bit. After all, tennis great Billie Jean King did feel the weight of the world on her shoulders when she famously took on Bobby Riggs in a showdown at the Houston Astrodome, in 1973.  Homan gave only an inch on that one, though. “I’m sure there’s a little bit of pressure in that respect but we’re not doing this to prove anything,” she reiterated.

If Homan thinks this is anything more than just a curling tourney, she's not letting on other than to say she feels “a bit nervous going in." But, she adds, "nerves are good.”

“We haven’t played these teams before so, (it's) a little bit different. But, we're still going in with the same mindset and making sure we’re prepared for this tournament just like any other one."

This will be different, though.

Like so many sports, curling's sexual divide is entrenched and has been so for many, many, many years. 'Women can't match up with the men,' so many have cried. 'They can't throw hard enough,' has been heard through the years. 'They're not mentally tough enough,' is another well-worn thought, eye-roll-inducing as that may be. That's been changing at least a little bit, recently, with Homan and her team being poster girls for the emergence of a new attitude and style in women's curling.

"I think that they will not be overwhelmed by the stage they'll be on," wrote Mike Harris, the Sportsnet commentator who weighed in over email. "This will be important for them to stay relaxed out there."

Fearless in the hack and willing to take on any type of shot, Homan seems precisely the kind of unwavering skip to stare down this challenge. Her third, Emma Miskew, just makes shots. Constantly. "Just playing so well all season," Harris wrote of her. The team's second, Joanne Courtney, is leading the parade when it comes to the weapon of strong-armed sweeping (without directional fabric, that is). Lead Lisa Weagle is so adept at what has become one of the game's most important skills - the tick shot - that it's not uncommon for curlers and fans to call it "the Weagle."

They seem the right team to make this foray, though a number of others could fit the bill as well.

There haven't been a lot of instances where a women's team has taken on men's teams in serious competition at the elite level. Make no mistake, this is a serious tourney with names like Mike McEwen, Niklas Edin, Brad Gushue and Kevin Koe taking part. With $100,000 in purse money up or grabs, no one will be playing paddycake with Homan's team and she's fine with that. And she hopes her rink's appearance at the Elite 10 will lead to even more women's teams being invited to tangle with the men. That'd be a nice step.

“Maybe this’ll lead to a mixed tournament down the road, kinda once a year," she says. "And that’d be great for the sport. For now, we’re honoured to be included in the event. If we win a couple of games, awesome."

How will they fare? "I think they are going to hold their own," wrote Harris, whose own team lost in the semi-finals of this year's Ontario Men's Championship. "They have the power, which is key. Best women's hitting team in the world, by a mile. I wouldn't want to face them."

One of the factors that may be helpful, Homan says, is that the Elite 10's format - similar to a skins game where the number of ends won as well as the value of those ends matters more than the total points you score - is unusual for everyone. "Everyone’s style will be sightly different because of the format,” she says.

"I'm curious to see how they match up strategically," wrote Harris. "They've had success in a skins game so they should be fine there."

He went on to state that Homan and her mates will need to be keenly aware of a key difference between men's and women's curling at the present time.

"The weapons they'll be facing will be their biggest challenge, in my opinion," he wrote. "Leaving long doubles and multiple angles etc... isn't something that they have had to worry about, for the most part. So they'll need to be more aware of that factor."

Team Homan has been having a rather remarkable season. Ranked as the number one women's team in the world, they have piled up nearly $160,000 in winnings on the strength of seven wins in nine events, including three Grand Slam wins as well as the Canada Cup before being derailed by Jenn Hanna at the Ontario Scotties. If they feel the lingering sting of that loss, a good showing against the men at the Elite 10 is surely one way of applying a salve.

"Just like any other tournament, you go in with the expectation that you're going to win," says Homan. "This is no different."

Perhaps the pressure isn't on Homan and her teammates, anyway. Maybe it rests on the shoulders of the Gushues and Koes. The Edins and McEwens. In 2011, Cheryl Bernard's team narrowly lost out to Kevin Martin's in a Skins Game semi-final, $11,000 to $10,000. "Boy, oh boy. That's pressure," Martin said afterward. "That's definitely more pressure than I've ever had in a Skins Game before. The media would have killed me."

So, enjoy playing the best women's team on the planet, gents. They really have nothing to lose and the skip seems up to it, no matter what you throw at her, on the ice or on her phone.

“I’ve already gotten couple of messages, just kind of in good fun, joking around,” Homan says.

"Who was it?" she is asked. "One of the guys trying to trash talk?"

“Not throwing anybody onto the rails,” she replies, laughing.

Not today, anyway. She and her teammates will try to do that in Victoria. And make a little curling history on the way.