Jennifer Jones has turned to one of the great minds of curling in Canada as she retools her rink in the lead-up to the next Olympics.

With the retirement of longtime coach Janet Arnott, Ottawa’s Earle Morris has been named as the replacement for at least this season.

Morris, 62, the father of Brier, world and Olympic champion John Morris and the inventor of the stabilizer broom, had a frantic last season that included coaching Ottawa’s Rachel Homan to the national junior title and world silver.

Morris holds the distinction of being the only curler to represent three provinces at the Brier — Manitoba (1980), Quebec (’82) and Ontario (’85). He has also coached Australia at the worlds.

Morris vowed to take this season off from coaching. However, he was invited to the national training centre in July in Edmonton, where the 2008 world champion and four-time Scotties champ from Winnipeg was practising.

They clicked and the invite was made.

“We were really impressed with Earle’s knowledge, enthusiasm and passion for the game,” said Jones, who replaced third Cathy Overton-Clapham with Kaitlyn Lawes in April after a disappointing third-place finish at the worlds. “We felt he had a lot to offer in order to help us continually improve every aspect of our game.”

Morris won’t move to Manitoba. Much of the coaching will be done on a weekend trip to a slam event, plus the Canada Cup, and a week of training prior to the Scotties in February.

“The schedule that we looked at wasn’t too intense, so I had a change of heart and decided to commit for a year,” said Morris. “I am thrilled to be involved with such a superb team and look forward to a great season together.”

hoglinecurling.com