Rachelle Brown
Rachel "Rachelle" Brown is a Canadian curler from Edmonton, Alberta. She currently plays lead on Team Kelsey Rocque.
Career
Born in Smithers, British Columbia, Brown moved to Edmonton c. 2006. As a university curler, she represented the University of Alberta at four CIS/CCA Curling Championships. Brown first represented her new province at the 2009 Canadian Mixed Curling Championship, playing lead for Team Alberta, skipped by Tom Appelman. The team had a less than successful tournament, going 3-8, but Brown had the best percentage among leads in the tournament, and was named to the First All-Star team.Brown played for a number of skips before joining the Sweeting rink in 2011. She played with Joanne Delanoy from 2008 to 2009, Diane Foster and Casey Scheidegger from 2009 to 2010 and for Bobbie Sauder and Dana Ferguson from 2010 to 2011. Brown played in her first provincial championships in 2011 with Ferguson, finishing fourth. With Team Sweeting, they had a 3–4 record, failing to qualify for the playoffs at the 2013 Canadian Olympic Curling Pre-Trials. Also in the 2013–14 season, the rink had two quarterfinal appearances at Grand Slams, at the 2013 Curlers Corner Autumn Gold Curling Classic and the 2013 Colonial Square Ladies Classic. They continued their success that season by going undefeated at the 2014 Alberta Scotties Tournament of Hearts, where her team beat Cheryl Bernard in the final. Team Sweeting then represented Alberta at the national championships, the 2014 Scotties Tournament of Hearts. At the Hearts, Ferguson and her Alberta team had a 8-3 record following the round robin. This put them into the playoffs where she had to beat Saskatchewan's Stefanie Lawton and Manitoba's Chelsea Carey to get to the final. They did this successfully, but lost to Ontario's Rachel Homan 8-6 to win the silver medal.
After the 2013-14 season, third Joanne Courtney left the team to play for the Homan rink, the same team they had lost to in the 2014 Scotties final. She would be replaced by Andrea Crawford, who left the team early in the season when things weren't working out. With Cathy Overton-Clapham playing third as their spare, they won their first slam at the 2014 Masters of Curling. With Lori Olson-Johns as their new full-time third, they also made it to the semifinals at two slams and the quarterfinals at one other. They also won the 2014 Canada Cup of Curling, seeking their revenge over Homan in the final. The team would win the 2015 Alberta Scotties Tournament of Hearts, earning the team a berth at the 2015 Scotties Tournament of Hearts. There, Sweeting led the rink to a 9–2 round robin record, good enough for second place, behind Team Manitoba, skipped by Jennifer Jones. They would go on to lose to Manitoba in the 1 vs. 2 game, but rebounded in the semifinal, beating Saskatchewan, before losing to Jones again in the final.
The team found less success in their next season. They won just one tour event, though they still made the playoff in 5 of the 6 slams of the season, including making it to the finals of the 2015 Masters, where they lost to Homan. The team would not represent Alberta at the Scotties, as they would lose in the finals of the 2016 Alberta Scotties Tournament of Hearts to the Chelsea Carey rink, who would end up winning the national title.
In the 2016–17 season, the Sweeting rink would again make the playoffs in five of the six slams, including winning the 2016 Tour Challenge and losing in the final of the 2017 Players' Championship. The team again lost in the finals of the 2017 Alberta Scotties Tournament of Hearts, this time losing to Shannon Kleibrink. The next season, Team Sweeting defended their title by winning the 2017 Tour Challenge. Team Sweeting played in the 2017 Canadian Olympic Curling Trials, going 4–4, just missing the playoffs. The Sweeting team then turned their attention to the 2018 Alberta Scotties Tournament of Hearts, where she lost in the 3 vs. 4 game. In addition to winning the Tour Challenge, the Sweeting team would make the playoffs in one more slam that season, the 2017 Boost National. The team announced they would be splitting up after the season ended.
After the season, Brown stayed with Dana Ferguson and the duo joined the Carey team at front end including Chelsea Carey and Sarah Wilkes, playing out of The Glencoe Club in Calgary. Leading up to Alberta provincials, the team had two playoff appearances at Grand Slam of Curling events including a semifinal finish at the Masters. Team Carey qualified for the 2019 Alberta Scotties Tournament of Hearts as the CTRS leaders from the tour season. They qualified for the playoffs as the "A Qualifier" after defeating Casey Scheidegger's rink 7–2. They defeated the Kelsey Rocque rink in the A vs. B playoff game 10–2 and would go on to beat them in the final 8–3 after Carey made a double for four in the ninth end. Representing Alberta at the 2019 Scotties Tournament of Hearts, they went 7–0 through the round robin and finished the championship pool with a 9–2 record which made them the number one seed going into the playoffs. Alberta defeated Saskatchewan's Robyn Silvernagle rink in the 1 vs. 2 game 11–7 and would face Ontario's Rachel Homan rink in the final. Team Carey made history when they came back from a 1–5 deficit to win the championship 8–6 with a total of five stolen points and two missed draws by Homan in the 10th and 11th ends. At the 2019 World Women's Curling Championship, the team struggled and were the first Canadian women's team not to make the playoffs at the championship in twenty years. They finished the season with a quarterfinal finish at the 2019 Players' Championship and by missing the playoffs at the 2019 Champions Cup.
Team Carey did not have a strong start to the Grand Slam season, only making the playoffs at one of the first four events, the National. They had a strong week at the 2019 Canada Cup going 4–2 through the round robin, qualifying for the playoffs. In the semifinal, they lost to the Tracy Fleury rink 9–4. At the 2020 Scotties Tournament of Hearts, Team Carey led Team Canada to a 5–6 record, missing the playoffs and settling for seventh place. It would be the team's last event of the season as both the Players' Championship and the Champions Cup Grand Slam events were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On March 13, 2020, Wilkes announced she would be parting ways with the team. Three days later, both Ferguson and Brown announced they would be leaving and the team officially disbanded. On March 21, Kelsey Rocque and Danielle Schmiemann announced they would be adding Ferguson and Brown to their team for the 2020–21 season.