Jim Pierce - Team USA vice-Skip
(photo - Sitrin)
(photo - Sitrin)
Team USA coach Steve Brown told Universal Sports reporter Josh George that involving all the team members in the game will help skip Augusto 'Goose' Perez and improve the team.
“When you can get four people, four sets of eyes (assessing the situation), you’ll be a lot stronger than one,” Brown said during a phone interview.
"Goose knows the strategy comparable to the top teams, but he is still going to make mistakes sometimes,” said Brown. “But if you have that extra set of eyes, instead of making a call that is almost guaranteed to backfire, you have someone making you take that second look.”
Vice-skip Jim Pierce commented after the US Open, "We did gain some ground in communication, which is a huge thing....Everybody has to stay in the game, you can’t just shoot your two shots and be done.”
Read what you will between the lines here, but having met the team and seen them play, I know Goose is a forceful personality who relishes the big occasion and the opportunity to make the spectacular shot. If he is able to draw on the insights of the quieter members of his team, the game calling may become less adventurous, but USA's medal prospects may improve.
2 comments:
Skipping by majority rule does not last in the long term.....one problem is time constraints to have discussions, another is doubt in Goose's mind if he is over-ruled too much
The final decision is always that of the skip. The above comment is obviously from someone who hasn't come to the realization that curling is "TEAM" sport or has such a huge ego that they can't accept the fact that they might be wrong or that the others on his/her team might have a good idea on occasion as well. We're not talking about debating every shot here but only when the self centered hero is making an obvious faupa. good skips are open to suggestions from their team members. It doesn't mean you have to chage the original call.
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