Coach Dan Carey apologizes for telling umpire to 'shut up' during Scotties match

Chelsea Carey's coach and father apologized to an official for telling her to "shut up" at the Canadian women's curling championship.

An exchange between Dan Carey and an umpire Monday became tense after Carey was told he was running out of time to speak to his team during a timeout.

"I just got here. There's no way. Then let me talk. Shut up," he was heard to say on the television broadcast from Moose Jaw, Sask.

Curling Canada said Tuesday he apologized to the official.

"Curling Canada's policy remains to not publicly announce punishments or fines to participants in events," the organization said in a statement.

"We do not condone the actions of the coach in this incident. We can confirm that the matter has been dealt with, and that the coach apologized in person to the official, and that the apology was accepted."

Carey, who won a Canadian men's championship playing third for Vic Peters in 1992, was on the coach's bench Tuesday morning for his daughter's game against Alberta.

Chelsea Carey, the defending champion, had called a timeout in the ninth end of a 6-5 extra-end loss to Manitoba's Kerri Einarson on Monday.

Each team is allowed to call two 90-second timeouts per game.

World championship rules around timeouts are different.

Teams get only one 60-second timeout per game, but the timeout clock doesn't start until the coach reaches the team.

Coaches can abuse that system, however, by dawdling and giving the curlers more time to talk amongst themselves.

Dan walked to the away end of the ice to discuss strategy with the Calgary foursome.

"She told me I had 10 seconds left. I just got there," Dan Carey said Monday following that game. "They start the clock as soon as they said time out.

'Didn't intend to upset anybody'

"I said 'that can't be.' She said 'five seconds' and then started talking to me.

"I'm trying to talk the team and she's still talking at me. If I've got five seconds left, let me talk.

"I probably shouldn't have said shut up, but I did."

"Certainly he didn't intend to upset anybody," Chelsea said of her father. "He's not that kind of person.

"We still have concerns about the timing and the timeouts and how they're being handled. We don't think it's being done right. We get that it's volunteers and stuff, but it also is our livelihood here.

"He didn't get to say two words. So then what's the point of having a timeout? So that's where the frustration came from. It has been an issue all week and it was an issue in that situation."

Dan Carey didn't know how long it took for him to walk from the coach's bench at the home end of the ice to the away end.

"I didn't have a stopwatch from when it was called," he said. "They tell you not to run. I'll tell you this. The next time the timeout is at the far end, I'm running."

3-time Canadian champ supports Carey

Added Chelsea Carey:

"Maybe we've got to look at giving a little bit of time," Carey said Tuesday. "They don't want us to run. They want us all to be safe and I get that."

"Wait until you get there. That's how we used to do it."

Carey has the sympathy of Rick Lang, a three-time Canadian champion coaching Northern Ontario at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts.

An allowance needs to be made for timeouts called at the far end of the ice, he said.

"I just can't imagine another sport where it would be unequal like that from one end to the other," Lang stated. "There's a real flaw in the rule.

"You get a full minute and a half at the [home] end. At the other end you're lucky to get 30 or 40 seconds. It's bizarre.

"We all want to rush down there. They say, 'No, no, you can't run. We don't want you looking stupid.'"