For Brad Jacobs, new opportunity too good to pass up

In the end, it was an opportunity he couldn’t pass up.

Team Jacobs is returning to the Canadian curling scene with a new look, featuring former teammates Brad Jacobs and Marc Kennedy at the core of a talented group that also includes Brett Gallant and Ben Hebert.

“I had an opportunity that I felt like, and my family felt like, I couldn’t refuse,” Jacobs told SooToday. “There’s only so many times where opportunity knocks on your door, and I felt like it was the right decision to answer.”

For Jacobs and Kennedy, there’s a previous history that definitely comes into play.

After a year away from the sport, Kennedy joined forces in 2019 with the original Team Jacobs out of northern Ontario, which included brothers E.J. Harnden and Ryan Harnden.

“I really enjoyed the time that Marc and I had when we played again with Ryan and E.J.,” Jacobs said. “That team, and Marc and I as a back end, never really reached our potential. The pandemic was really a big reason why we didn’t. We were on a great trajectory in our first season and it all kind of just came to a halt at a time when we were a really great team.”

Jacobs added that the opportunity to curl with Kennedy again “was a big deciding factor for me.”

Kennedy said the chance to curl again with Jacobs is “one of those opportunities that doesn’t come around very often.”

“We have three seasons together where we worked through a lot of the issues that would come with a new back end,” Kennedy said. “We got to work through some communication stuff, what worked and what didn’t. We had to deal with the pandemic, but by the time our team came to an end, those Olympic trials in Saskatoon, we were only one or two shots away from winning the Olympic trials. By then we had figured it out. What made each other tick. I learned a lot about Brad and not only his skill level, but his ability to play in the big moments and really gather a lot of momentum.”

Jacobs joins the Alberta-based team after Kennedy, Gallant, and Hebert made the decision to part ways with skip Brendan Bottcher.

“It happened pretty quick,” Kennedy said.

“We just needed a new energy,” he added. “Brendan’s a fantastic curler. He’s a great teammate. He worked really hard. He did all the right things, but Ben and I are on a little bit of a time crunch here. We kind of see the end of our careers in the next two years at the end of the Olympic cycle and we want to win some big stuff.”

Kennedy said here were some question marks that entered the equation as well.

“Did we feel that Brenden was ready to be that top-level player to compete against the Brad Gushues, the Niklas Edins, and Bruce Mouats week in and week out?” he said. “More importantly, was he ready to compete against those guys in the big moments in the next 18 months?”

Kennedy also said the fact that Jacobs was potentially in the mix and “looking pretty hungry and driven and motivated and has had that experience and he’s a similar age to Ben and I,” was hard to ignore.

As excited as Jacobs is to join Kennedy for another run, the 38-year-old had nothing but positives in discussing joining forces with Gallant and Hebert.

“The resumes of my three new teammates speaks for itself,” Jacobs said. “They accomplished a ton. I know that everyone is motivated and driven to do whatever it takes to accomplish more. That’s very enticing for me. I look at this as a challenge. I feel like it’s the challenge that I need in my life right now is to try to lead a team like this. I’m excited for that challenge. We have a lot of things to figure out. I’ve never played with Ben or Brett before. I’ve only been on the other side and played against them, so I look forward to the coming months and the rest of this year and especially getting on the ice next year and figuring out the dynamic of this team and how I can best lead the group.”

With Jacobs joining a team that includes a former teammate in Kennedy and the latter’s familiarity with Hebert as a teammate and more recently with Gallant, Kennedy said that experience will come in handy as the team comes together.

“We worked really hard as a team here to build those foundational pieces to be successful,” Kennedy said. “Whether it was our practices, we’ve got a great coach in Paul Webster, we’ve developed some core team values and things that we call non-negotiables. We’re bringing a player in that understands that he’s the player coming into a group that has some fundamental pieces in place and he’s definitely willing and able to adapt to what we’ve created.”

Kennedy added that Jacobs also has the personality and mindset “that’s going to fit in great.”

“It gives us the ability to take off running as opposed to spending a full season trying to build those pieces,” Kennedy said.

Excited to join his new teammates, Jacobs also spoke highly of his former teammates with the Carruthers rink.

“It was very obvious to a lot of people that the dynamic with our team was fantastic,” Jacobs said. “I really enjoyed Connor (Njegovan), Derek (Samagalski), Reid, and Rob (Meakin) on and off the ice. That was never an issue.”

“We improved immensely as a team,” Jacobs added. “We were on a pretty good trajectory. Had a great Brier. All in all, the season was pretty positive. We had some positives, but we worked very hard. Although we didn’t accomplish our goals, we all grew as people and as a team. That makes it a little bit of a success.”

In talking about Jacobs’ time with Carruthers, Kennedy said it was noticeable that the year Jacobs took off from curling was a benefit for the Sault native.

“I had a good chat with him about that because I had taken a year off back in 2018,” Kennedy said. “It refreshed him. It rejuvenated him. It probably helped take care of a couple of injuries and then he was back on the scene bringing good energy and good intensity. It looked like he was playing great.”

“He’s already at that competitive standard that he expects from himself,” Kennedy added.