Been to a Brier final in his hometown of Kamloops.
Been to a four-player Olympic Trials final.
Worn B.C.'s colours at 13 national championship events, 10 times as provincial men's winner.
Yet for Vernon's Jim Cotter, there is no doubt he and daughter Jaelyn Cotter's 9-4 win over his longtime men's four-player second Tyrel Griffith of Kelowna and his partner Jennifer Armstrong (Rothesay, NB) in the opening draw of the 2025 Canadian Mixed Doubles Curling Trials in Liverpool, NS tops his career highlight list.
The sentiments after the game were unrestrained, and very, very real.
“It's emotional,” said Jaelyn, 24. “We’ve been playing together since 2016 and we’ve come long and far. We’ve worked so hard to get here and we’re just so happy to be here and we feel like we really deserved it. It’s so exciting being able to play with my dad. Like, there aren’t many sports that you can even do that so it’s really special. It's really special.”
For 50-year-old Jim, who has 10 Brier Purple Hearts including a memorable 2014 Brier silver medal in Kamloops, where he grew up, and a silver medal from the 2013 Canadian Curling Trials final in Winnipeg, playing with his daughter this week for the opportunity to represent Canada at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy, will be impossible to beat.
“Absolutely,” said Jim, long considered one of the game’s best-liked and most respected players. “Yeah, just to round out my career. I’m obviously getting older and to do this, it’s special.”
As if playing with his daughter weren’t enough, Cotter had to face off with his longtime men’s teammate Griffith, with whom he played at six Briers.
“Well, I’m glad it was the first game and not the last game in the round robin,” said Cotter with a smile. “He’s like a little brother to me. So yeah, it’s tough playing friends like that but we’re both competitors and once we get out there, we’re here to win some games and put ourselves in a good position.”
They did that Monday, as Jim fired a 94 per cent game (exceptionally high for mixed doubles curling). The Cotters raced to an early lead by scoring three in the third end and never looked back, putting away the win with a count of four in the seventh end.
While Jim is no stranger to high-stakes competition, Jaelyn is a relative newcomer, but any pre-game jitters were quickly dealt with.
“Honestly, our big thing is just going out there and just having fun,” she said. “Play like we can, and learn the draw weight as soon as possible because the draws are so important, especially for my first shot. You just have to nail it every time. So I didn’t have a whole lot of nerves."
“I think we did add (pressure on ourselves) to start this season,” added Jim. “So the last couple events, we were just like, let’s just let go. Let's just, like she said, have some fun, quit trying too hard and just go play.”
It worked out nicely Monday.
There are 16 teams from across the country taking part in the Trials, which will conclude on Saturday, Jan. 4. The winning team will first represent Canada at the 2025 World Mixed Doubles Championship April 26-May 3 in Fredericton, N.B.
That event also will decide most of the countries that will compete at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy, and if Canada qualifies for the Games, it will be the Trials winner in Liverpool who will wear the maple leaf in Italy.
In the other Draw 2 games, reigning Canadian champs Team Kadriana Lott/Colton Lott (Gimli, Man.) were 7-2 winners over Team Melissa Adams/Alex Robichaud (Fredericton); Team Jocelyn Peterman/Brett Gallant (Chestermere, Alta.) got by Team Riley Sandham/Brendan Craig (Guelph, Ont.) 8-6; and Team Lisa Weagle/John Epping (Ottawa/Toronto) shaded Team Taylor Reese-Hansen/Corey Chester (Kitimat/Victoria) 8-7.
Earlier Monday, Team Jennifer Jones/Brent Laing (Barrie, Ont.) scored two in the eighth end to beat Team Jessica Zheng/Victor Pietrangelo (Niagara Falls, Ont.) 6-5; Team Rachel Homan/Brendan Bottcher (Beaumont, Alta./Spruce Grove, Alta.) was an 8-2 winner over Team Paige Papley/Evan Van Amsterdam (Edmonton); Team Laura Walker/Kirk Muyres (Edmonton/Humboldt, Sask.) stole three in the eighth end to get by Team Anne-Sophie Gionest/Robert Desjardins (Alma, Que./Saguenay, Que.) 8-5; and Team Brittany Tran/Rylan Kleiter (Calgary/Saskatoon) doubled Team Nancy Martin/Steve Laycock (Wakaw, Sask./Saskatoon) 6-3.
The Cotters will face the Canadian champion Lotts in their next game at 3:30 p.m. Pacific time.
