Korean teams using DeKalb Superspiel as warmup for Deaflympics

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This article was published 01/12/2023 (686 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

MORRIS — Curlers from around the globe are in Morris this weekend for the DeKalb Superspiel.

That includes South Korea’s men’s and women’s deaf national teams as they made the trip for a chance to play elite competition on high-quality ice.

When the event concludes Monday, they’ll travel to Winnipeg to spend a few weeks training out of the Pembina Curling Club.

They’re working toward the 2024 Winter Deaflympics in Turkey.

“You don’t really see deaf curling teams in tour events often. They’re actually very excited that they’re able to compete in a tour event,” said Min Lee, the team’s manager and translator.

“It means a lot to them, and it means a lot to the (Korean Curling Federation), too. They were looking forward to it very much. They’re honoured and they’re having a blast.”

Lee, 37, grew up in Seoul, but moved to Vancouver as a teen. He now lives in Morris and manages the Stampede Inn — the lone hotel in town. He helped Eun ji Gim — currently the No. 2 ranked women’s team in the world — at the 2018 DeKalb, and now he assists all Korean teams when they play on Canadian soil. He was in Kelowna last month for the 2023 Pan Continental Curling Championships.

“It’s personally very rewarding,” said Lee.

The women’s side, skipped by Jisu Kim, lost 6-3 to Vancouver’s Clancy Grandy in the opening draw. The men’s foursome, who dropped a 7-2 result to Winnipeg’s Ryan Wiebe Friday, is skipped by Hongkeon Kim. Teams are afforded three losses before being eliminated.

“We’re looking for that one win, if possible,” said Lee.

The DeKalb Superspiel started in 2009, and this year’s edition has a $60,000 prize purse between the two tournaments. The men’s bracket features 16 teams while the women’s boasts 24. The finals take place on Monday at 4 p.m.

A team with a strong chance at being in the final game is Thunder Bay’s Krista McCarville.

McCarville, third Kendra Lilly, second Ashley Sippala, and lead Sarah Potts represented Northern Ontario at last year’s Scotties Tournament of Hearts in Kamloops and lost to Gimli’s Kerri Einarson in the semifinal.

The year before that, they fell to Einarson in the national championship game.

McCarville, 41, now has five players on the roster as they added 11-time New Brunswick champion Andrea Kelly in the off-season.

Leaving Morris with the $10,5000 grand prize would be nice, but that’s not the sole focus.

“Our coach is here (Rick Lang), and we have the five of us. All the other spiels we only had the four of us, so, this is our first time trying the rotation,” said McCarville.

“We haven’t tried that yet, and going into our provincials, we’re going to be doing the rotation, so, we want to try and figure that out and see what combination works the best.”

McCarville, a teacher in the Thunder Bay Catholic School District, and her teammates play a lighter schedule than most, if not all, of the teams at their level. They weren’t going to miss the DeKalb, though.

“We’ve heard really good things and actually, Andrea and Kendra were here last year for it and they had nothing but really good things to say,” said McCarville.

“For us, from Thunder Bay, it’s about a seven and a half hour drive, so, that saves us on flights. We do a lot of flying from Thunder Bay.”

Switzerland’s Michele Jaeggi, world No. 31, is another international team at the competition, but unlike the rest, she has a former Canadian champion filling in at third: Chelsea Carey.

This is the fourth event this season that Carey, a 39-year-old Winnipegger who now resides in Calgary, has played alongside Jaeggi.

After years of curling out of Alberta and Saskatchewan, Carey returned to her Manitoba roots for the 2022-23 campaign to throw the final stones for third Jolene Campbell, second Liz Fyfe, and lead Rachel Erickson. The team disbanded after its lone season together.

“It’s been really fun. I haven’t gotten to play third in a long time, so, that’s been fun and different, and I’m enjoying that,” said Carey. “They’re super nice girls and they’re great players so it’s been great.”

Carey has also subbed for Jennifer Jones twice this season.

After this weekend, she has nothing lined up.

“I chose to not put a team together this year. Everybody’s kind of already committed for the Olympic cycle, so when your team splits up mid-cycle, it can be tough. I just didn’t see anything that made sense for me,” said Carey. “At this point in my life, I’m not going to play for the sake of playing. I want to play with a chance, and I just got a new job so it’s just kind of made sense to take a little bit of a stepback for the year, but it’s been nice to be able to curl a bit.”

taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca

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