Stoughton crew can hold their heads high

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This article was published 17/03/2009 (6359 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

STEVE Gould could have sulked, could have talked about skip Jeff Stoughton’s dad suffering a heart attack before Sunday’s Brier final or about the torn tricep that made every one of his powerful brush strokes a bother.

Instead, the burly long-time lead for Stoughton’s seven-time Brier foursomes gathered sons Rylan, 3, and Nathan, 6, in his oak-tree arms at the airport Monday for a welcome home as he saluted the Manitoba squad that was clobbered 10-4 Sunday night by defending world champ Kevin Martin of Alberta.

“What do you do?” asked Gould, one of the best leads in the world. “Sometimes it’s not in the cards, but we were very proud of how we pulled ourselves together and performed under pressure. A lot of people counted us out early in the week and we kept going.”

Only Gould and second Rob Fowler of Brandon flew home from Calgary Monday. Stoughton stayed there with his mother to monitor the progress of his father Jack, who suffered a heart attack some time before the final.

Third Kevin Park of Edmonton will be flying in later as the Stoughton foursome travels to this week’s Canada Cup in Yorkton, Sask. Stoughton’s to fly home to Winnipeg this afternoon, pick up Gould at 5 p.m. and then drive to Brandon to pick up Fowler for the journey to Yorkton.

Gould said Stoughton knew before Sunday’s final that something was amiss because Jack would usually come down to say hi before games. He didn’t Sunday night and Stoughton couldn’t find his mom or dad in the stands.

“Jeff came back to the hotel (Sunday) night and he said his dad was resting. Jeff is more there, I think, to help with his mom… he’s a little bit worried about her. At the end of the day, curling doesn’t really mean a whole lot, does it?”