Brier rookies from Ontario face defending champ today
SPORTS
BRANDON, Man. — Brier rookies they may be, but Scott McDonald’s team vanquished big names and logged more games than any rink this season to get to the Canadian men’s curling championship.
McDonald, vice Jonathan Beuk and front end Wesley Forget and Scott Chadwick out of Kingston, Ont., have played 80 games this winter to accumulate experience as a foursome.
They beat John Epping three times at Ontario provincials, including the final, as well as former Canadian and world champion Glenn Howard en route to booking their first berth at the Tim Hortons Brier.
There will be no easing into the tournament as McDonald faces defending champion Brad Gushue in their first game today.
“I would place us in the dark-horse category,” McDonald said Friday after practice. “We’ve played a lot of the top teams and we’re competitive against the top teams. They know who we are and we know who they are. It’s just a matter of playing well in this environment.”
The 16-team main draw opens this afternoon in Brandon. Curling now dominated by a handful of teams, it’s a novelty when new faces appear among the elite.
McDonald pushed into the top-10 of the men’s World Curling Tour rankings earlier this month with a 54-26 record.
The skip says planning and building their inaugural season began last April when the four men determined they could be a good fit.
“At the beginning of the year, our goal was to get to the Brier,” McDonald said. “It wasn’t to finish second or third (at provincials).
“I’d finished third last year. It’s not a fun position to be in. That was motivating in some respects.”
They played nine tour events their first two months together.
Winning the Gatineau Curling Challenge on arena ice in October helped McDonald qualify for the National Grand Slam in December, where they didn’t make playoffs, but still gained valuable experience. They went undefeated at Ontario provincials and thus feel battle-hardened heading into Brandon.
“It gave us some experience where we didn’t have before,” McDonald said. “We’d all played in big games in different capacities, but obviously the final to get to the Brier is the biggest game we’ve ever played in.
“We know we can come into a setting like this where the pressure is on and perform,” he continued.
“That’s important for a team that doesn’t have as much experience as the top four or five teams in the field that have been here multiple times and know what to expect in this environment.”
The B.C. champions this year call Kelowna and Vernon curling clubs home. Jim Cotter skips Steve Laycock, Tyrel Griffith and Rick Sawatsky. After skipping Saskatchewan seven times at the Brier, Laycock changed provincial colours to curl with Cotter. They’re ranked 32nd in the CTRS.
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