McPherson takes to the ice at Heather Curling Club

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This article was published 09/09/2014 (4377 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Heather Curling Club has a new general manager, who just so happens to also be an ice technician with a pretty impressive resume.

Adam McPherson takes the helm after the rink’s executive board announced his appointment at the tail end of July.

“I was at the Brier in Kamloops and one of the icemakers there, Greg Ewaskow, worked here previously and informed me that there was a position opening at the Heather,” said McPherson.

McPherson grew up in Toronto and moved to Lethbridge, Alta. in 2007 to become a head icemaker at a local rink there. In 2009, McPherson moved to the Alberni Curling Club in Port Alberni, B.C.

“I was there in Port Alberni for five years,” he said. “The opportunity came up when I was there to come to Winnipeg and work at one of the biggest and best curling clubs in the country. It was too good to turn down.”

McPherson is a level 3 ice technician and brings with him nearly 20 years of experience which saw him work both at the Tim Hortons Brier and the World Curling Championships.

“It’s an event, just the energy, there is a lot of people there,” McPherson said of the Brier. “It’s the show, it’s the Super Bowl of curling.”

McPherson said he has been able to interact with many of curling’s top talent over the years, often with questions concerning the ice.

“They will straight up ask, so you try to be honest with them,” he said.  

A self-proclaimed rink rat, McPherson doesn’t remember too many times where he wasn’t staring at a sheet of ice.

“That’s what I was, I started off when I was 13, bumming around curling clubs,” McPherson said. “It’s all I know.

A former curler himself, McPherson made it as far as the Ontario Juniors where he, and many others, were stood up by pro curler John Morris.

“He prevented anybody from winning,” he said.

The Heather Curling Club, located at 120 Youville St., has been around since Christmas Day 1915, when it was a part of the former City of St. Boniface. The club was the first in Greater Winnipeg to install an artificial ice plant in 1953. The club has also produced two rinks that have represented Manitoba at the Brier — Clare DeBonde in 1976 and Doug Harrison two years later in 1978.

The club, with eight sheets of ice, has played host to a slew of events over its rich history, including provincial championships such as the Strathcona Seniors and the Green Valley Juniors.

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