Neufeld changes colour scheme

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 01/03/2019 (2593 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

BRANDON — B.J. Neufeld is still getting used to his new duds at the Brier.

The Winnipegger is flashing a royal blue-and-yellow uniform at Westoba Place, not the typical black-and-yellow apparel he’s grown accustomed to wearing under the bright lights of the Canadian men’s curling championship.

Neufeld’s not a Manitoban this week. The former longtime third for Mike McEwen is now plying his trade on Team Alberta, led by world-class skip Kevin Koe.

Neufeld, 33, the head golf pro at Larters at St. Andrews, is competing in his fourth straight Brier — this time as an import.

Representing anywhere but the home province feels a bit odd, he said Friday.

“It’s strange, for sure. My dad represented Manitoba and watching him, you take a lot of pride in wearing the buffalo when you get a chance, too,” said Neufeld, whose father, Chris, won the Brier in 1992 with the late Vic Peters.

“Playing out of Alberta now, it’s a little bit different, but I’m still loving being here at the Brier. It doesn’t matter what province I’m representing, I’m going after that Tankard (trophy). That’s the goal for the week and I’m happy to be representing Alberta for the week.”

Neufeld, his brother, Denni, and Matt Wozniak, played with McEwen for a decade, losing a couple of provincial finals before finally breaking through in 2016. They won back-to-back Manitoba crowns and then qualified for a third consecutive Brier last year in Regina as the first-ever Team Wild-Card.

But the foursome went its separate ways after failing to make the playoffs in Regina.

“It was definitely a mutual decision. We were all feeling the same way that we needed something new, something fresh, to get really excited about. Every team has its shelf life, and we probably expanded ours probably better than most teams are able to,” Neufeld said.

McEwen is here skipping Team Manitoba, with Reid Carruthers at third, second Derek Samagalski and lead Colin Hodgson.

Neufeld and McEwen have run up against each other on the competitive tour this season but are on opposite Brier pools this week and won’t go head to head until championship-pool play late in the week, if they make it that far.

“We had a lot of success,” Neufeld said of the old gang. “We were a really consistent team, but we all wanted to go our separate ways and try something different.”

In their time together, they lost to Koe in the men’s final of the 2017 Olympic trials, missing a chance to go to Pyeongchang.

Koe, whose old squad left the 2018 Winter Olympics without a medal, revamped the team for 2018-19 season, adding Neufeld and Colton Flasch at second.

Former third Marc Kennedy took a hiatus from curling, while Brent Laing joined John Epping’s team. Ben Hebert continues to play lead for Koe.

They won Canadian and world championships in 2016, and then returned to the Brier in 2017 in St. John’s, N.L., losing the final to Brad Gushue. So, Koe’s new team was back in the Alberta playdowns battling for a spot in the Brier, locking one up Feb. 10.

Koe said the addition of Neufeld in the fall was seamless.

“We’re fortunate to have him. He’s been a great fit,” Koe said. “He’s a great shooter, obviously, but we knew him off the ice, too, and he’s just a fun guy, a calm guy and a perfect teammate. Whatever he’s doing off on his own is working out well because he’s been playing great.

“It’s probably gone better than we could have hoped. To be where we’re at, the top of the (Canadian Team Ranking System) points, the (WCT) money ($121,648), we’re at the Brier again, it’s great. We’ve been super consistent in every event we’ve played.

“We put this team together with some long-term goals and it’s obviously a great start. But this will be a good test for us because it’s our biggest event of the year and it’ll be a good challenge.”

Neufeld said he was initially concerned how practising on his own would go with the rest of the team in Calgary, but it quickly became a non-issue.

“Being by myself in Winnipeg and training by myself, I thought maybe that might be tough. But it’s been really good, a bit of a pleasant surprise,” said Neufeld, who tossed rocks almost daily at Winnipeg’s Granite Club, connecting with his teammates on the road at Grand Slam events and other World Curling Tour events.

“I think I got comfortable with the team pretty early. I played with Kevin and Ben at a skins game a bunch of years back. We see each other all the time on the tour, and we’d get together in social aspects and have a beer here or there, so it was pretty easy. They made me feel welcome, so it was an easy transition.”

The most difficult aspect of the new challenge is not sharing the ice with his brother, Denni.

“We played together for so long, we have the same goals in this sport. To be separated trying to achieve those goals, that’s a bit tough,” Neufeld said. “We would have loved to have done everything together but it just didn’t work out that way.”

jason.bell@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @WFPJasonBell