Friesen team rocking

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This article was published 20/01/2020 (2287 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

They’re fresh out of the junior curling scene and they’ve barely played together, but you’d never be able to tell by watching them play.

Skip Josh Friesen, third Emerson Klimpke, second Troy Kemball and lead Reece Hamm out of Stonewall Curling Club have looked like a group of veterans at this week’s Manitoba Open curling bonspiel.

The young squad hasn’t lost a game and their 8-4 win Sunday afternoon over William Kuran booked their ticket to tonight’s final against Paul Scinocca for the Asham Trophy. The championship game goes down at 7 p.m. at Deer Lodge Curling Club.

Friesen and Kemball played junior together and so did Klimpke and Hamm. With Friesen and Kilmpke aging out and moving into men’s competition in the same year, the two junior skips decided to join forces. So far, it appears to have been a good move as they have yet to lose together. Before the Open, they played in last month’s Manitoba Viterra East Regional in Selkirk and won all three of their games. The newly formed group will be making their Viterra Manitoba Men’s Provincial Curling Championship debut together in two weeks.

“That’s always the goal when you enter an event… to win it and be the last team standing. But we joined this for practice. We joined to have a couple more games under our belt before men’s provincials,” said the 21-year-old Klimpke.

“But to win the Open, an event that’s been around for 132 years, that’s pretty cool to (potentially) join the 131 previous teams to have that title under your belt. A lot of teams look around and see a couple of younger guys coming up, it’s made the transition a little bit easier to play in an event like this and get lots of games out of the way to prepare ourselves for men’s.”

Friesen and Klimpke would’ve loved to have ended their junior careers with a provincial title, but both fell short. At the junior men’s provincials earlier this month in Dauphin, Klimpke went 5-2 and finished one game short of the playoffs and Friesen’s rink went 4-3. Friesen turns 20 on June 28, but due to Curling Canada’s recent rule changes to the junior age eligibility, he aged out and had to move on.

“As a teenager, to age out of juniors, it’s really frustrating,” Friesen said. “That was my best chance to win a buffalo (provincial title). It’s tough to win a buffalo in men’s with Mike McEwen and these guys.”

Instead of being bitter about the rule change, Friesen said he realizes it’s out of his control and he’d rather focus on making a name for himself on the men’s circuit.

“Winning a junior buffalo, it doesn’t really do much other than getting you experience and kind of put you out there,” said Friesen.

“Going into men’s, it’s nice to put your name out in men’s because that’s where it really matters. Playing in the Brier, playing in the Viterra, that’s what really matters.”

Jumping up to the next level hasn’t been overly daunting thus far. The inexperienced team has felt comfortable against their new opponents thus far. The Manitoba Open full bonspiel features 224 teams.

“It’s nice to see a couple of fresh faces out here,” said Klimpke, who’s been throwing the last rocks all week.

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“It’s also bit of a lighter mood because we don’t have anything to lose in the Open this weekend. We’re just using this event for practice. To have the success that we’re having before the Viterra, it’s nice.”

They’re currently focused on capturing the Manitoba Open’s top prize, but Klimpke and his teammates already know what they hope to accomplish at the Viterra Championship which kicks off on Feb. 5.

“I want to make the final eight, for sure… I want to be playing that Friday night and the eyes are on you,” Klimpke said.

taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @TaylorAllen31

Taylor Allen
Reporter

Taylor Allen is a sports reporter for the Winnipeg Free Press. Taylor was the Vince Leah intern in the Free Press newsroom twice while earning his joint communications degree/diploma at the University of Winnipeg and Red River College Polytechnic. He signed on full-time in 2019 and mainly covers the Blue Bombers, curling, and basketball. Read more about Taylor.

Every piece of reporting Taylor produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.