Walter competing to be top curler in province and family

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This article was published 09/02/2023 (1323 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Two of the best young curlers in the province come from the same North Kildonan household.

While Meghan Walter, 20, prepares to skip her upstart rink at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts later this month in Kamloops, B.C., her older brother Brett is in Neepawa making noise at the Manitoba men’s provincials.

“The funny thing is, we used to chirp each other once in a while saying who the better curler is in the family, but I’m definitely leaning towards her now since she won the world mixed curling championship (in 2019 in Scotland) and made a couple grand slams and now the Scotties this year,” said Brett, 22, with a laugh.

Brett might start leaning in the other direction if he and his Assiniboine Memorial squad can pull off the upset in Friday’s 8:30 a.m. draw in an ‘A ‘qualifier meeting with No. 1 seed Matt Dunstone. Brett, third Graham McFarlane, second Devon Wiebe, and lead Hugh McFarlane are off to a 2-0 start after beating Jace Freeman 11-4 in their opening draw Wednesday before defeating Jordan Peters 12-9 on Thursday. Walter made the most of having the hammer in the 10th end as he scored four to jump ahead of Peters and secure the victory.

Dunstone, the top-ranked team in all of Canada, had a nailbiter in the second round as he squeaked by Beausejour’s Justin Richter by a 5-4 score.

Walter, who won Manitoba’s junior title in 2020, and Dunstone haven’t played each other this season.

“We’re all pretty excited. Playing in a ‘A’ qualifier is the exact spot we wanted to be in and there’s nothing better than playing the No. 1 seed,” said Walter.

“We just gotta play a little bit sharper and hope a little luck goes our way. It’d be huge to beat them, and I would love to qualify on A-side, but you know, beating them once probably isn’t enough. You’d probably face them again at some point on the weekend.”

Walter made the trip to Neepawa on a high note as he and Meghan won a 10-team mixed doubles event in East St. Paul last weekend to share a $1,000 prize. Their parents, Frank and Sheryl, got them into the sport at an early age and they haven’t looked back since.

“Early on when we used to play in our junior days, it wasn’t easy to play together at first because it’s easier to get under each other’s skin when you’re siblings, of course, but as we’ve gotten older and matured more, we’ve kind of settled down,” said Walter.

“We play to each other’s strengths and work well together as a team on the ice now.”

Ryan returns… sort of

J.T. Ryan made history in 2019 by becoming the first skip in Manitoba curling history to win three consecutive provincial junior men’s championships.

He looked like he was destined to have a lengthy career on the men’s circuit, but the skip out of Assiniboine Memorial announced after the 2022 campaign that he was stepping away from the competitive ranks. Two of his teammates — Colin Kurz and Tyler Forrest — decided to do the same. Brendan Bilawka is the only one to stick with it as he now plays for Corey Chambers, the No. 4 seed at this week’s Viterra.

“I got a job and the schedule for it didn’t work out great. And then, even just aside from that, I feel like to be one of those top teams, you have to almost make it your full-time job where you’re curling every weekend and practising. Like, I love curling, but I didn’t want to ruin it for myself. I felt like doing that and trying to compete against some of those teams when you’re not practising is a quick way to get bitter about it,” said the 25-year-old Ryan.

“And when you are in your early 20s, it’s kind of like if you want to try to pursue this thing full time, but then after a few years if you realize it’s not working out or whatever, then you’re in your late 20s, early 30s and have to figure out what you want to do in your life. For me, I didn’t want to take that kind of gamble.”

Ryan isn’t 100 per cent finished with the sport as he’s competing in Neepawa with Kurz, Austin Pearson and Brandon Radford. The group fell to 1-1 after dropping their second game 4-3 to Riley Smith. The loss forced them to play last night’s late draw against Kelly Marnoch in B-side action.

Ryan, who works at an exploration camp in Northern Ontario, had only played one game all year prior to provincials.

“The mindset is different. In other years, it was about seeing how far we could get and maybe having a chance, and then this time, it’s just kind of nice to see your friends again and curl,” said Ryan.

“You don’t book the hotel room for as many nights, we’re just going night by night, so it’s definitely different, but it’s a lot of fun.”

taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @TaylorAllen31