Quietly going about their business Team Kluchnik uses Manitoba Open to prepare for World Deaf Curling Championships By: Joshua Frey-Sam Posted: 5:17 PM CST Friday, Jan. 17, 2025

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This article was published 17/01/2025 (242 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

As the 137th edition of the Manitoba Open bonspiel began Thursday at Fort Rouge Curling Club, not every team shouted “hurry hard.”

One of the tournament’s oldest entrees, the Winnipeg-based Team Kluchnik was using American Sign Language and other visual cues to communicate as they guided their stones down the pebbled ice.

Skip Joe Comte, third Bill Kluchnik and second Frank Chung were all born deaf, while lead Cam Hurst lost most of his hearing five years ago.

They make up one of the two deaf teams in the latest iteration of the world’s largest bonspiel, which goes through the weekend and concludes Monday. Ross LaVallee, Brian Broszeit, Shawna Demianyk and John Gessner make up the other.

Team Kluchnik, which comprises masters-level players, might be quiet by nature, but make no mistake, its play is loud.

“We’re very competitive, and we have been competitive, and it’s when we’re going on to play in national championships then that competitiveness ramps up,” Hurst said.

As 256 teams vie for one of three invitations to the Viterra men’s provincial championship, Team Kluchnik is using this week to prepare for a bigger event on its calendar.

After winning the 2023 Canadian Deaf Championship, the team was set to represent Canada at the 2024 Winter Deaflympics in Turkey until the country was deemed unsafe for visiting athletes and the event was cancelled.

To make up for their missed opportunity, the Manitobans will wear the Maple Leaf at the upcoming World Deaf Curling Championships in Minneapolis in April. While Comte, Kluchnik and Chung have all previously curled on the international stage, the opportunity is particularly special to Hurst, who will experience it for the only time in his life.

Hurst has trained year-round for the last five years for the chance to represent his country, which he called a bucket-list experience. The 60-year-old said he plans to step away from the team to instruct younger curlers after the world event.

“I am trying to bring more awareness to deaf curling than what exists in this province, and that if there’s anyone that wants to get into the high-performance levels, that it is possible,” he said.

The team formed at the Heather Curling Club in 2019, when Hurst joined Comte, Kluchnik and then-second Brian Weselowski. Chung, who lives in Vancouver, met the team at a national tournament while playing for British Columbia’s provincial team and agreed to serve as the alternate.

Following Weselowski’s death last year, Chung stepped into a full-time role as the team’s second and flies to Winnipeg about five times a year for bonspiels. Weselowski’s name is embroidered on the team’s jerseys in his honour.

Hurst admitted there were some hurdles to overcome early on. The most prevalent of which was communicating with his teammates because he didn’t know ASL.

“That’s been a challenge, but they’re good and they taught me and it’s fine,” Hurst said. “The team is positive because we all want to win a national championship. We’re all older, so we have experience.”

There are 16 curlers registered with the Manitoba Deaf Sports Association. Chris Hamblin has operated as the coach for Team Kluchnik along with her husband Lorne since 2022, and together they have worked with the deaf community since 2014.

Hamblin said the team has found workarounds to communicate with one another, such as using a translator, apps that dictate speech and the classic method of writing something down.

Still, some challenges arise. Their communication lacks efficiency and it’s common for messages to be misinterpreted.

“A normal half hour or an hour practice with a team, you can accomplish a lot of things,” said Hamblin, who has worked with several national teams.

“With a deaf team, it’s much harder. There are certain things they understand, and you can progress through fairly quickly, but there’s some things that they just have difficulty grasping what you’re telling so, yeah, it slows things down.

“Probably the biggest challenge is just the ability to understand the concepts that we’re talking about. Not all translators have a knowledge of curling — most don’t actually — so they’re trying to translate something that they don’t really understand,” she said.

“When you’re having to rely solely on the written word or sign language… there’s lots of times things get misunderstood and so… I won’t say tempers flare, but you can see that frustration and that they’ve interpreted something (the wrong way).”

Indeed, it requires patience and a tight-knit group to withstand some of those frustrations. It’s also something the group has largely been able to overcome, as it has defeated teams from across the country that are much younger. They hope to repeat some of their success this week.

“I’ve always chalked it up to experience,” said Hurst.

“Normally you don’t have 60-year-olds on a national championship, but for some reason, we’re doing something right, obviously.”

joshua.frey-sam@freepress.mb.ca