The third bonspiel of the season as a foursome for the Jamie King rink is the provincial curling championship in Westlock.
The Boston Pizza Cup starts today at the Rotary Spirit Centre for King, who calls the shots for the team of Glen Kennedy, the last rock shooter, second Sean Morris and lead Todd Brick.
“Anytime you get to go to provincials it’s a good thing,” said King, the 2003 and 2005 provincial finalist.
Ranked ninth in the Alberta Curling Tour standings, King and his men qualified for provincials as the B-event winners at the Northern Alberta Curling Association playdowns last month at the Thistle.
“With a limited schedule and the time we put into the game nowadays it’s awesome going to provincials,” said Kennedy, the 1998 Canadian junior men’s runner-up as the third for the Alberta champion Carter Rycroft rink. “It’s one of the few times we do get to play on arena ice and playing in front of big crowds, so provincials is always exciting.”
The Ellerslie-based team competed at tour stops at the Crestwood and Medicine Hat in October and Calgary and Red Deer in November but the entire lineup was only available for the first event because of injuries and family commitments.
“With the spiel season we didn’t accomplish what we wanted to accomplish but there were some pretty good reasons why,” King said. “For us getting a chance to regroup in January and playing well in northerns was good.”
Kennedy estimated the season consisted of 25 games so far and the payout was basically beer money after a few qualifiers.
“Nothing fancy. We’re not winning hundreds and hundreds of dollars on tour,” said Kennedy, a St. Albert Curling Club product. “It doesn’t pay the bills.”
At northerns, everything clicked despite the lack of playing time.
“We would ideally liked to have played more games as a team this year but having a fairly veteran experienced group you kind of get in that team mode in a fairly quick hurray once you get into northerns and it doesn’t take long to gel. We’ve all played together numerous times on numerous different teams so it’s not like you’re trying to learn someone’s tendencies in a weekend. We all kind of know what we do and how we operate. If you had more of a junior team it would probably be very difficult to throw it together but that’s the one nice thing about being older I guess is that you do have that experience so sometimes it does pay off,” said King, 43, an 11-time President’s Cup playoff champion with the legendary Hootie and the Old Fish rink at the St. Albert Curling Club.
Northerns started with the 8-5 loss to Colin Huber of Vermilion as King gave up steals of one in second and two in five to trail 6-1.
In the B bracket, King edged James Pahl of the Thistle 8-7 in an extra end after counting a four-spot in five to lead 4-2.
The next game was 7-5 against Glen Hansen of the Saville Centre, with Dan Holowaychuk of St. Albert at second for the 2015 Alberta senior (50-plus) champion skip.
The 7-3 win in eight ends over Tyler Pfeiffer of the Saville Centre put King in the B final against Dale Fellows of Spruce Grove. A deuce with hammer in the first end of the final was followed by two blank ends and a steal of one in four. The handshakes started after counting three with last rock in seven to make it 6-1.
“We definitely elevated our play as the week went on. It was nice to see,” King said. “The first game we didn’t play that bad. It was one of the few games I’ve had in my career where all four guys were throwing good but we just weren’t getting the results.
“We took the positives out of that game and after that each game got a little bit better and a little bit better and then the final game when we beat Dale Fellows we played really good. They didn’t have much for chances at all.”
The provincial men’s berth is the 11th for King and Kennedy believes it’s his sixth or seventh.
The last provincial appearance for both cutlers was 2015 in Wainwright with King as the skip, Jeff Erickson at third, Warren Hassell at second and Kennedy at lead.
The 12-team draw at Westlock includes Charley Thomas of the Crestwood/Glencoe clubs, Brendan Bottcher of the Saville Centre, Ted Appleman of the Saville Centre, Mick Lizmore of Sexsmith, Graham Powell of Grande Prairie, Roland Robinson of Manning, Thomas Scoffin of the Saville Centre, Josh Lambden of Calgary, Aaron Sluchinski of Airdrie, Jeremy Harty of the Glencoe and Pahl.
“It definitely has a different feeling this year. I went into men’s I think back in ’99 or so, which ironically was the last time that there wasn’t a Martin or a Ferbey or a Koe in the event, which is kind of interesting so anyone going into it this year it’s a lot more open than it probably has been in the past,” said Kennedy, 37.
“With that said we’re a pretty confident team. We definitely don’t put as much time and effort into it as we once all did but I guess for us it’s like any sport when you don’t put all the day to day effort in then it just comes down to consistency. We can play very well as a team and we’ve proven it to ourselves that we can go toe to toe with any team out there on any given day but whether that is consistent or not becomes the question.”
The road to the Tim Hortons Brier, March 4 to 12 in St. John’s, Nfld., begins with today’s opening draw for King against Harty at 9:30 a.m. The winner plays Appleman at 6:30 p.m.
Kevin Koe, the defending champion, is this year’s Team Canada at the Brier as the 2016 winner and gold medallist at worlds so anybody can win Alberta this year.
“We’re going to try, that’s for sure,” said King, the alternate for Koe’s 2010 Brier and world championship rink, as well as Koe’s 2014 Brier winning team.
“I would say this is the first time since 1999, which was the last time someone other than Martin, Ferbey or Koe has won a BP Cup and that was Ken Hunka, where it’s probably the most wide open field but there are a couple of favourites in Charley Thomas and Brendan Bottcher for sure.
“In the past you could play your very best like we did in ’03 and ’05 and make the finals and your very best wasn’t still good enough to beat a Ferbey or a Martin and that’s not the case this year. You can play your very best and you can win it. There is no one out there that are sort of at that next level. There are a lot of good teams but there is no Ferbeys or Martins and those two teams were probably the top two teams of all time so it was pretty difficult.”
To have another shot at provincials is too good to be true for Kennedy.
“It’s actually been pretty unreal with this squad in the sense that we all come from the same scenario where 10 to 15 years ago we were all super-competitive and going weekend after weekend after weekend on tour to now where we all have kids and we’re all very committed dads. To be totally honest curling nowadays is number four or five on the priority list but the offset of that is that we still have a huge passion for the game and a love for the game and the competitiveness out there you just can’t beat. Luckily we all have wives that are very understanding and also competitive themselves that they allow us to sort of continue this crazy dream of ours to throw our hat in the ring every once in a while,” said the St. Albert Catholic High School alumnus who is coaching youth curlers at Ellerslie, just like his dad, Don, did in St. Albert.
King is also grateful for the opportunity to perform on the provincial stage.
“Priorities have changed over the years like 10 years ago we were playing 15 spiels in a year and that was high on the priority list but between family and kids and work the priorities change but we still love the game and we enjoy the passion and trying to win Purple Hearts is still a big motivator. We just enjoy playing with the great group of guys that we have. There is lots of talent and lots of skill, we just can’t put the commitment in like we used to but we all enjoy spending a little bit of time playing the roaring game. It’s fun,” said the Bellerose Composite High School alumnus.
Meanwhile, Hootie and the Old Fish are still the team to beat in St. Albert men’s curling despite a lopsided loss in four ends recently to the firefighting Hoekstra brothers. The second defeat of the season was a drop in the bucket for the team of Craig King, Brian Pfeifer and Ralph Killips, a trio of senior citizens, plus alternate Elson Keown, a masters-age curler, and super subs Blake MacDonald and Scott Pfeifer, who are former Brier and world champions.
“We’re still having a lot of fun and that’s the name of the game,” said King, who guided the Old Fishes to their third city title in eight years in 2013 at the Edmonton and area Tournament of Champions.
