Calvert’s crew motivated

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This article was published 05/02/2020 (2271 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Don’t look now but Braden Calvert’s team could be the next big thing in Manitoba curling.

Last year, the Assiniboine Memorial skip and third Kyle Kurz, second Ian McMillan and lead Rob Gordon were so close to a major breakthrough at the Viterrra Championship they could taste it, breezing through four consecutive wins before bombing out with a pair of humbling losses. 

“It sure stung,” recalled Calvert Wednesday afternoon after his fourth-seeded squad kicked off the latest edition of the provincial men’s curling championship with an 11-1 triumph over Morris’s Alan Gitzel at Eric Coy Arena. 

“In the first four games (in 2019) we were playing as well as we had as a team and thought we were playing maybe the best of any team (there). We kinda got tricked out there against (Jason) Gunnlaugson in that first loss and came out really flat against (Tanner) Lott to get booted home.”

The disappointment of Virden in 2019 also served as motivation to get better.

The young team — three members of the squad are 24 while McMillan is the senior of the bunch at 28 — have made it a point to become more battle-tested. Kurz and Calvert, the 2015 world junior champ, had already been teammates for four seasons when Gordon and McMillan joined the group in the spring of 2018.

“We were playing so well (last year) and kinda got on cruise control,” said Kurz. “We had a couple of ends where we lost draw weight and lost the ice a little bit. We learned a lot on how to manage that and how to adapt to that because we didn’t manage it the proper way last year.”

Calvert figures the growing pains were all part of the master plan.

“We’re kinda working our way as a team to contend for this championship and that was the goal when we put the team together — to compete for these Manitoba championships and rise in the world and Canadian rankings,” said Calvert. “And we’re putting ourselves in a good spot to do that.”

Calvert’s crew was also determined to seek out tough competition.

“We all have good curling pedigrees and we’ve done lots of things in junior and our first few years in men’s,” said Gordon.

“Now’s the time we’ve been talking about — that it’s time to take that next step. Our main goal is to compete with lots of the top teams. We played 10 games against the top 10 teams in the world last year and didn’t win a single one.”

The current campaign has shown evidence of steady improvement with early season wins over heavyweights Kevin Koe and Glenn Howard at the Shorty Jenkins Classic before a trip to the semifinals and a narrow loss to Brad Gushue.

The quartet has also played in Asia, representing Canada at the China Open with a third-place finish.

Calvert, who balances a heavy curling schedule with two jobs — he’s an agronomist while also operating a Carberry-area mixed farm with his brother Trevor and dad Grant — has found his current team to be a nice blend of curling acumen and personal chemistry.

“We’ve kinda been blown away — we have as much fun off the ice as on the ice and we really get along well,” said Calvert. “Going across the world, seeing each other every weekend, you’ve gotta like the guys you’re playing with and I think that turns into success on the ice.”

Next up for Calvert is a matchup with the Granite’s Trevor Loreth in Thursday’s 8:30 a.m. draw.

What would make for a successful week?

“Probably, getting into that final and eventually winning the championship,” said Calvert. “We feel we’re a strong enough team when we’re all playing well to do that and that’s kinda of goal right now.”

Gordon would like to see a steady level of play with no drop-off when the games and pressure intensify.

“A successful week would be managing the weekend better than last year…,” he said. “Our goal this year is to continue to play well in the early part of the week and then hopefully get to the final eight and build on that.”

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @sawa14