The usually slow spring curling season has been pretty active the past week with the reports that, first - Ryan Fry has quit as Jeff Stoughton’s third and, second, Kerry Burtnyk has fired third Dan Kammerlock.

About 99% of Manitoba curlers are no doubt shaking their head. Those are the ones who have lived by the standard that ‘just being there’ is good enough. Whether it is the Safeway Championship (or for a few the Brier) OR the Provincial Scotties Tournament of Hearts (or for even fewer the National) - just being there is the team’s objective. The quote is usually something like “We’re happy to be here, hopefully we can win a couple of games - maybe get on a roll and make the playoffs, then anything can happen.”

For most - winning is a dream, not an objective.

But this week’s news tells us that for these two guys (Fry and Burtnyk) winning is more than a dream. They’ve both qualified for the Olympic Trials process - they’re both part of teams that have had way better than average years. They’ve both said, for whatever the reason, ‘happy to be there isn’t enough - and we’re not good enough to win it’.

I have to admit when I heard Fry had bolted, my first thought was ‘give your head a shake, kid’. I was less surprised by Burtnyk’s decision.

Like most people I was surprised by Stoughton recruiting Fry and by Burtnyk recruiting Kammerlock in the first place. Like most people, I’d have thought that being on the edge of that Olympic dream would be all you’d need to try to make what you’ve got better.

But no - just being there isn’t the objective. Winning is - and if the team isn’t good enough to win, change is necessary.

The problem is that curling ability is easy enough to find - finding the intangible is the real challenge.

Jennifer Jones and her team found IT this year - whatever IT is. Jennifer talked about it Thursday when the St. Vital Curling Club celebrated their World Championship by making Jennifer, Cathy, Jill, Dawn, Jennifer and Janet Honourary Life Members of the club. Jennifer talked about the perfect communication, the perfect understanding, the perfect confidence they each have in the others.

Players go for years and sometimes never find IT. Or maybe they find IT once, only to have the season end - forcing them to wait all summer to find out if IT has abandoned them.

Will Stoughton and Burtnyk find IT in their new thirds, whoever they are? Will Fry find IT with Gushue? Frankly, I doubt it. My guess today is that the winner of the Olympic Trials in Edmonton in 2009 will be four guys who have curled together for the 3 or 4 years leading up to the trials.

The odds of Kevin Martin going back to the Olympics got a lot better this week.

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If there is good news in all this talk about Stoughton and Burtnyk and their prospective new players, it lies in the fact that curling is in the headlines and could be most of the summer.

You won’t find much speculation here about who those new team lineups will be but I do know it could be tougher for Burtnyk than for Stoughton to find IT. My best speculation on the subject lies in the fact that Stoughton may already have his third in the lineup.

How’s this - Skip Jeff Stoughton, Third Rob Fowler, Second Garry Van Den Berghe, Lead Steve Gould.

I know - Van Den Berghe is retired and living in BC but maybe the lure of an Olympic shot could bring him back. The fact that he lives in BC wasn’t an issue the last time he represented Manitoba so it shouldn’t be now.