Brier gets underway with Sask. looking to end 44-year drought

The Montana’s Brier is ready to rock the Brandt Centre.

The Canadian men’s curling championship takes place in Regina from Friday through March 10.

The last time the Queen City hosted the tournament was in 2018.

It has been 44 years since a team from Saskatchewan has won the Brier; the province’s last win was in 1980, when Rick Folk’s rink won it all in Calgary.

“Personally, there’s no more pressure than I would already put on myself as an athlete,” Saskatchewan skip Mike McEwen said on The Green Zone on Thursday. “I get excited with that storyline in the background – that’s legendary. That’s the stuff athletes dream about. I get goosebumps thinking about the possibilities.

“I’m still chasing after my first Brier title so that’s enough right there. But (it’s exciting) to add in doing something for Saskatchewan where curling is embedded just as much as Manitoba — possibly more so, I’m not sure.”

McEwen, who is originally from Brandon, admitted he has managed to convince some people to trade in the yellow for green this week.

“I’ve got to say this right but I’ve got a lot of family to don green bunnyhugs,” McEwen said. “It still kind of hurts a little to say it. A whole bunch of us are converting and we’re excited to have a lot of family and friends at this championship.”

He has made eight previous Brier appearances and has skipped rinks out of Manitoba and Ontario.

“From experience, a lot of things have changed over the years for me,” McEwen said. “Colton (Flasch), Kevin (Marsh) and Dan (Marsh) have a wealth of experience themselves. Being a new team, we’re still working on what (is) an ideal amount of practice and what we are doing. What does that look like the week to 10 days before the Brier?

“We’re pretty comfortable with that, but we are still learning as a team what we like to do and maybe what would work best in the future. It does start a good week or so before the championship begins.”

While McEwen is the team’s import, Flasch (Biggar), the Marsh twins (Regina) and alternate Pat Simmons (Moose Jaw) all hail from the land of living skies.

The rink curls out of the Nutana Curling Club in Saskatoon and won the right to represent the province with a 7-3 win over Rylan Kleiter’s rink in the SaskTel Tankard final.

“We’re kind of riding a pretty big high after provincials and starting to really find our groove and play well,” McEwen said.

They will try to knock off the defending champions, who are no stranger to success at Briers in Regina.

Brad Gushue’s Team Canada rink comes in as five-time Brier winner, with the St. John’s, N.L., product also skipping in the 2018 Brier in Regina. He was the defending champion then and won it all once again in the Queen City.

Third Mark Nichols and lead Geoff Walker were both on that team as well. In 2018, the second was Brett Gallant. This year’s event will see E.J. Harnden in that spot.

Event manager Amanda MacKenzie joined The Greg Morgan Morning Show on Thursday and said tickets have been selling well but they are still available.

“Come on down, you’ll be able to walk up to the box office, grab your ticket and enjoy and cheer on Team Saskatchewan or Team Canada,” MacKenzie said.

The Brier Patch is a popular hangout spot during the event. MacKenzie said it is open to everyone on a first-come, first-serve basis Friday night with The Reklaws playing at 9:30 p.m.

“We have a capacity of 4,200 people. I’ve even had people tell me that they are just going to go there – they are going to leave their seats early to go make sure that they can go see The Reklaws live,” MacKenzie said.

Every night will have entertainment at the Patch.

While other teams aren’t representing Saskatchewan, a few have a touch of the prairies as well.

Regina product Catlin Schneider will curl in his hometown as the skip of the B.C. rink. Schneider, third Jason Ginter, second Sterling Middleton and lead Alex Horvath will try to win B.C.’s first Brier title since 2000.

This will be Schneider’s fourth trip to the Brier; he represented Saskatchewan three times previously. He was the third on Flasch’s rink in 2022, second on Matt Dunstone’s rink in 2020 and third on Adam Casey’s rink in 2017.

Regina’s Ben Hebert is no stranger to the Brier; he’s making his 16th appearance. He has only curled for Saskatchewan twice at the Brier (2005-06 as a member of Simmons’ rink). He has represented Alberta or Canada in all of his other appearances, as he now calls Chestermere, Alta. home.

This year he is the lead on Brendan Bottcher’s Alberta rink.

Hebert is one of the more accomplished curlers in the field, winning the Brier four times (2008, 2009, 2016, 2019) and also winning Olympic gold in 2010 as a member of Kevin Martin’s rink.

Cole Parsons, who was born in Kindersley, will be the second on the Northwest Territories rink skipped by Jamie Koe.

MacKenzie expects the entire event to have a major economic impact on the city.