Winnipegger tossing rocks for the Rock at Brier Local curler skipping Team Newfoundland and Labrador at national men’s championship By: Joshua Frey-Sam Posted: 4:39 PM CST Wednesday, Mar. 5, 2025 Last Modified: 7:33 PM CST Wednesday, Mar. 5, 2025 Updates

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This article was published 05/03/2025 (251 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Ty Dilello envisioned this tale would go a little differently.

Then again, he’s just happy there’s a story to tell.

The Winnipeg skip is living out a dream at his first national men’s curling championship in Kelowna, B.C., this week, heading the young team out of Newfoundland and Labrador that includes third Ryan McNeil Lamswood, second Daniel Bruce and lead Aaron Feltham.

It’s something he set out to do years ago after leaving a career as a competitive tennis player behind. However, for Dilello, an author by trade, he hoped his Brier story would include wearing Manitoba’s colours.

A self-proclaimed late bloomer in curling, Dilello played a season in Vancouver with former national champion Brent Pierce, then returned home to play with Sean Grassie for a year. He found stable ground over the last three seasons as the third for Ryan Wiebe’s Winnipeg-based team, along with brothers Sean and Adam Flatt.

The fit was perfect for Dilello when he joined in 2022 — a young, up-and-coming team that was looking to take the next step in men’s competition — and they proved to be a competitive foursome, reaching the top 10 in the Canadian Team Ranking System while playing in several Grand Slam events.

“Pretty much as soon as we joined, we were a pretty good winning connection,” Dilello said.

A trip to the Brier was their ultimate goal, and that never came to fruition.

The Fort Rouge team made three respectable runs at the provincial championship, the deepest of which came in 2022 when they reached the semifinal before losing a 10-9 heartbreaker to eventual champion Mike McEwen. The next year, they lost in the playoff-qualifier round, falling in consecutive games to Reid Carruthers and Matt Dunstone.

“We just couldn’t break through at the provincials,” Dilello said. “There’s Dunstone, McEwen and Carruthers there. It’s very hard to break through.”

Team Wiebe disbanded after the 2023-24 season, and Dilello began to look for a team that could knock off Manitoba’s heavyweights. That search wasn’t so fruitful in the middle of an Olympic cycle, so he looked to other provinces where the path to a Brier was less rugged.

Around the same time, another up-and-coming group was growing frustrated with their own luck in the Newfoundland and Labrador provincials. Playing with former provincial junior champion Graham Weagle, McNeil Lamswood, Bruce and Feltham had reached the semifinals in consecutive seasons only to fall short.

“We just couldn’t break through at the provincials. There’s Dunstone, McEwen and Carruthers there. It’s very hard to break through.”–Ty Dilello

“It kind of felt like we were a little stuck,” said McNeil Lamswood, who was skipping at the time. “Graham was such an awesome guy, and we really liked playing with him, but the opportunity that presented itself with Ty was not really one to pass up.”

As Dilello had experienced before, the connection paid immediate dividends. Despite playing one event — four games — together before provincials in January, the new squad went 9-1 in the 12-team triple knockout event to win the championship.

“He was obviously super easy to get along with, and the three of us are just kind of like young idiots, like we’re not going to be too hard to get along with either. So it was really quick chemistry and he’s been awesome to play with so far,” said McNeil Lamswood.

Manitoba is typically well-represented at the national championship, and this year is no different.

Joining Dilello are Dunstone and Carruthers’ locally-based teams, Team Saskatchewan skip Mike McEwen, who was born in Brandon and curled more than two decades out of the province, and Wiebe, who jumped on as third with Ontario’s Sam Mooibroek.

At 1-5, the results haven’t been as favourable as Dilello would’ve liked at their first Brier, but it’s easy to forget about the losses when he sees the crowd at Prospera Place and some of the best curlers in the world on the next sheet.

“It’s amazing. It’s just such a hard event to get to, to qualify for, just because of the format. So to actually make it and be here in Kelowna, playing in the Brier, playing in this gorgeous arena, yeah, it’s fantastic,” he said.

Dilello is in a difficult pool that includes past champions such as Carruthers, Brad Gushue and Kevin Koe, and other heavyweights such as Dunstone and John Epping, the country’s No. 1 and No. 5 teams, respectively.

“It’s amazing. It’s just such a hard event to get to, to qualify for, just because of the format. So to actually make it and be here in Kelowna, playing in the Brier, playing in this gorgeous arena, yeah, it’s fantastic.”–Ty Dilello

“The pool of death, they’re calling it,” Dilello said.

“We’re trying to just stay afloat and try to hold our own here in this competition and try to get better as the week goes on, because it’s very tricky ice conditions and stuff that my guys definitely aren’t used to, and that’s kind of been showing on the ice so far.

“You never know. Maybe we’ll stick with some teams. Maybe not. But either way, I think we’re all just super excited to finally play in the Brier and hopefully build for the future.”

joshua.frey-sam@freepress.mb.ca