Hamiota coach comes to Neufeld’s rescue

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This article was published 02/04/2016 (3808 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

BRANDON — Dale Brooks arrived in Digby, N.S., as the coach of the Manitoba senior women’s curling team. He could leave as a Canadian senior men’s curling champion.

The 60-year-old Hamiotan unexpectedly joined reigning Canadian champion Randy Neufeld and his La Salle team after third Dean Moxham had surgery to remove his appendix on the eve of the national tournament.

Moxham, who felt as if he had food poisoning when the Manitoba champions arrived in the Bluenose province March 26, threw five stones at practice the next morning. He couldn’t continue and was eventually transported 100 kilometres southwest to Yarmouth, N.S., for the operation.

This left Neufeld with just three team members. Since no fifths are allowed at senior nationals, Neufeld had the option of adding someone from the spare list or a player from Manitoba. He asked Brooks.

“It was kind of unbelievable when the guys first approached me about the option of playing. I was just dumbfounded. I felt very honoured that they would even consider using me,” Brooks said. “Playing with a Canadian champ the first game was a little nervous, but they’re great guys to play with and very supportive.”

With Brooks, who skipped his own team to a 3-4 record at provincials in late February, present, Neufeld asked tournament officials about adding Brooks, who competed at the 2009 event in Summerside, P.E.I.

“We were told that Dale couldn’t play when we first asked and then they had a guy from Curling Canada come and we figured we didn’t like that answer and didn’t think it was right, and asked him and he said no problem,” Neufeld said.

Still, Brooks had to consult with Sandra Cowling and the members of the women’s team, which includes his wife, Jackie. He received their blessing to play when he wasn’t coaching.

Knee brace

“I talked to the girls’ team, and we had quite a discussion, and we decided that when I was coaching the girls I would coach them and I would curl with the guys when I could,” Brooks said.

After purchasing a knee brace, he curled — throwing second stones — in three of the men’s six opening pool games, in which Manitoba went 4-2 and advanced to the championship pool. After the women went 2-4 and dropped to the seeding pool, Brooks was free to curl with Neufeld, new third Peter Nicholls and lead Dale Michie.

Cowling completed her first trip to the nationals with wins over the Northwest Territories, 7-5, and Yukon Territory, 6-5, to finish 5-4.

“The first three days it was pretty tiring. We spent most of the day at the rink either playing or coaching,” Brooks said. “The last couple of days we had the afternoon off, or didn’t play at night so we had one draw off so we could go back and get some rest.”

Manitoba finished second in the championship pool with an 8-2 record and will play Nova Scotia in the semifinals this morning.

If they win, they’ll advance to the final later in the day against either Ontario or British Columbia.

Neufeld was grateful Brooks was available, even though they’d never previously curled together. In fact, Neufeld beat Brooks 6-1 at the senior provincials.

“We were so fortunate that he was here,” Neufeld said. “We kept thinking that we may have had to go with the option of flying somebody out here.”

And Neufeld believes his new foursome has got stronger as the week has progressed.

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“It was really hard, basically to get your head wrapped around what that was going to happen and you were going to go on,” he said of Moxham being sidelined.

In the end, however, it’s worked out better than Neufeld could have expected.

“I like our chances now,” Neufeld said.

Brooks is just trying to do his part, although he jokingly admitted the sweeping has got a little tiring. A small sacrifice for a chance to be remembered as a national champion.

— Brandon Sun