Veteran skip Carruthers pulls out of Olympic curling pre-trials to focus on coaching
It wasn't immediately clear whether the 40-year-old skip plans to curl next season
Team Reid Carruthers plans to return with the same four-player lineup next season, but the rink's focus will be on the 2025-26 campaign and not on qualifying for the Winter Olympics.
The Winnipeg-based team has pulled out of the Oct. 20-26 Home Hardware Pre-Trials and been replaced by Team Jayden King, Curling Canada said Wednesday.
Carruthers will play the regular cashspiel season and aim to return to the Montana's Brier. He'll also prioritize coaching duties with Team Kerri Einarson, a Gimli, Man.-based rink that has already qualified for the Nov. 22-30 Montana's Canadian Curling Trials.
The winners of the Pre-Trials will advance to the main Trials, which will determine the Canadian entries for the 2026 Milan Olympics in February.
"It kind of came down to a choice of coaching or not coaching, and it's something I still wanted to do," Carruthers said of the "tough decision" to withdraw. "The only way to do both this year — being a very important year - was to limit my own curling play."
The 40-year-old Carruthers, who won national and world titles in 2011 with Jeff Stoughton, guided his team of vice B.J. Neufeld, second Catlin Schneider and lead Connor Njegovan to a Manitoba title last winter.
The foursome went 6-2 in round-robin play at the Brier before falling in the Page Playoff 3-4 game to Alberta's Brad Jacobs, who went on to win the national title.
The 2025-26 season calendar is a busy one with the Pre-Trials, Trials, Olympics, five Grand Slams, regular tour events and the new professional Rock League beginning in April.
In the event of schedule conflicts due to coaching plans, Carruthers said his team may expand if needed.
"We're still trying to figure out what that would look like in certain scenarios," he said from Winnipeg. "But likely it would involve expanding our roster to at least have one more person involved and almost having like a team of five."
The team has yet to finalize its upcoming schedule.
As for Einarson's rink, Carruthers said the squad has been holding regular off-ice planning meetings and has scheduled a training camp in August.
Second Shannon Birchard missed most of last season with a knee injury but is expected to return when the new campaign begins in late summer.
"The idea would be to have her back in the lineup at the start," Carruthers said. "So we're not 100 per cent certain at this point. But coming back from injury, she's working hard to get it back and going."
The team also includes vice Val Sweeting and lead Krysten Karwacki. Karlee Burgess served as an injury replacement for Birchard over the second half of last season.
Also Wednesday, Curling Canada announced the draw schedules for both the Pre-Trials and the main Trials. King, from London, Ont., filled the Pre-Trials vacancy as the highest-ranked rink that had yet to qualify.
