The founder of stick curling was crowned the first double winner of the provincial championship in Sunday's showdown at the St. Albert Curling Club.
Carson Schultz beat out former champion Don Hafso 4-2 in the ninth annual showcase of two-person stick curling.
"It's the first repeat and it's not easy to do," said Schultz, the inaugural 2004 winner with Brian Dingman.
The Didsbury duo of Schultz and Garry Sherman finished the 32-team draw undefeated to capture the provincial title.
"We've been chasing this thing for eight years now and we finally got it," said Schultz, 65.
"We've been in the final before so it's really nice to finally make it," added Sherman, 67.
Sport for life
Stick curling consists of two players, male or female of any age, per team. They can either stick deliver or slide deliver. Each team takes turns throwing six rocks per end. The two skips that end become the throwers for the next end. There is also no sweeping between the hog lines.
"It's great to show people that anybody can get out there and enjoy the sport," Schultz said
A sore knee forced Schultz to try stick curling in 1998 and he was soon hooked.
"It's so much easier to do," he said.
It also helped Dingman, his buddy from Didsbury, to stay active in the sport.
"He had a medical condition and ended up in a wheelchair and couldn't curl anymore, but he finally got mobile enough to use a cane. He just loved to curl, but with a cane you can't chase rocks up and down. We said, let's revamp these rules a little bit so that you can stay at one end and shoot and I will go down to the other end. You shoot them down to me and I will shoot them back," Schultz said. "All of a sudden the sport exploded."
Sherman also caught the bug and stick curling quickly became Didsbury's unofficial sport.
"I came along a couple of years later after Carson started the sport and we've been working on it since then," said Sherman, who curls with Schultz in leagues in Carstairs, Airdrie and Innisfail.
"It really is a sport for everybody."
Hafso, the 2009 provincial champion with Viking rinkmate Doug Dobry, started stick curling seven years ago.
"I use to curl competitively but I quit for a year because my knee went on me and I can't slide anymore. A guy talked me into trying a stick and I just enjoyed doing it. It kept me going in the sport, which I love," Hafso said. "Drawing is a little tougher but you'll find you can almost hit as well with a stick as you could throwing normally."
Close contest
In the final the Schultz and Sherman tandem counted singles in the first three ends and led by one going into the sixth and last end.
"Keeping it close and keeping it clean was the key," Sherman said.
In the first end Sherman opened the scoring with the hammer.
"It's a big thing in this game when you've only got six ends and you win the toss and you get up in the game. That's usually a big factor in the outcome," said Hafso, 65.
After giving up steals in second and third ends, Hafso and his 30-year-old son, Rodney, scored one in four and stole one in five to close the deficit to 3-2. After Rodney hogged his second last shot in five while attempting to guard his shot rock, Sherman missed a wide-open takeout on the next delivery. Rodney replied with a rock to the rings for second shot and Sherman followed with the hammer to reduce the damage to one.
"We just got off to a little bit of a slow start, but once we got going we were just so evenly matched," Hafso said. "If I count one in that second end it's even and we're probably in the game all the way. It's probably going to be back and forth because that's just the way both of us play."
In the last end with three rocks remaining, Schultz was lying shot behind two Hafso stones welded together in front of the four foot when the Didsbury skip took out both guards with a great shot.
"Sometimes you just get lucky. That's what curling is about," said Schultz.
He still needed to make his last shot count to avoid an extra end.
"It was a good game and very close. Both teams played very well," Schultz said.
On the eve of provincials, Hafso brought on board Rodney, a slide deliverer from St. Albert, as a last-minute replacement for his stick partner who was vacationing in Phoenix.
"It was fun curling with him. We both did our best," Hafso said.
In the B final at provincials, Milt McDougall and Pat Leibel defeated Al and Jeanette Shipton. The result of the C final was unavailable at press time. The winners of the D final were Paul Boisevert and Albert Boratynec against Ron Currie and Jim Normey.
St. Albert was represented by 12 teams.
"It was a very enjoyable weekend. St. Albert should be really patted on the back for what they have done to host such a fine provincial event," Schultz said.
For more information on stick curling, visit www.sturling.net.
