Team McEwen rested and ready

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 14/12/2011 (5275 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It was a short sabbatical Mike McEwen didn’t think he needed until he was right in the middle of it.

After a hectic opening to the 2011-12 curling season which saw his rink take to the pebble seemingly every weekend, the 31-year-old skip gave himself and his Fort Rouge team a tiny mental and physical vacation last week.

Let the record show it takes around seven to 10 days to recharge the batteries in the curling world.

“Yeah, that’s about right. It doesn’t sound like much but it was a well-timed break — for all of us,” McEwen said prior to heading off to Kingston, Ont., to defend his BDO Canadian Open title.

Team McEwen is one of 18 rinks competing in the $100,000 Grand Slam of Curling event, which starts tonight and runs through to the championship final Sunday.

“I took quite a few days off from even stepping onto the ice, so it was kind of nice to just see where we’re at. We’re excited to play again. If you would have asked me that after the Canada Cup, I would have told you something very different.”

The Canada Cup of Curling, which took place earlier this month and offered the first berth for the 2013 Olympic curling trials, has been the only bump in the road for McEwen this season. The team struggled with consistency and before they managed to get a handle on their game, it was too late.

That was the first time that happened all year.

Playing six out of seven events prior to the Canada Cup took a lot of wind out of the sails and as things started to unravel in Cranbrook, B.C., curling started to morph into something they had to do, rather than something they wanted to do.

While the busy itinerary paid off financially (more on that later), it did come back to hurt the team when it needed to find the extra gear for the coveted Olympic qualifier invite.

A scheduling gaffe on his part, McEwen said.

“We probably went at it a bit too much prior to that event, as we were a little burnt out,” he said. “It kind of crept into our game. We didn’t really notice it until it was happening and by then, it was way too late. Something to learn from, though; we can’t expect to play every weekend and be at the top of our game.

“We’ll know better the next time.”

Before hitting the wall at the Canada Cup, things were humming along for McEwen.

His team, made up of third B.J. Neufeld, second Matt Wozniak, and lead Denni Neufeld, sits atop of the money heap, already earning $83,500 on the World Curling Tour. That success has translated into the first-place position on the WCT order of merit list, a points ranking that essentially gives his rink priority seeding for events.

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McEwen is also No. 1 in the Canadian Team Ranking System (CTRS) standings, which rewards busy, well-travelled teams with an opportunity to secure a berth into their home province championship event (he has already gained entry into the Safeway Championship in February).

“Getting off to a hot start has been good for us in a couple of ways,” said McEwen, whose first game is tonight (6:30 p.m.) against Ontario’s Mark Kean. “Not only did it allow us to find a good rhythm and set the tone for the season, but it also gave us a chance to get some experience in big-game situations.

“That will serve us well down the road, I think.”

McEwen is one of three Manitoba rinks at the Canadian Open. Defending world champion Jeff Stoughton (Charleswood) and Rob Fowler (Brandon) are also in Kingston.

adam.wazny@freepress.mb.ca