Olympics or bust for Koe quartet

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 07/11/2020 (2085 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

B.J. Neufeld is undoubtedly the busiest of all Winnipeg curlers.

The irony isn’t lost on the 34-year-old former Brier champion, who practises regularly at the Fort Rouge club but, in all likelihood, won’t throw a competitive rock on local ice during the 2020-21 competitive season.

Neufeld plays third for Calgary’s Kevin Koe, and the Alberta team will play seven events out west before the holiday season. Most squads in Manitoba — a province with tougher quarantining restrictions owing to the COVID-19 pandemic — will be fortunate to get in two or three.

The Koe quartet, with a pair of Olympic champions, John Morris and Ben Hebert, on a stellar front end, is in Okotoks this weekend in a 16-team, all-Alberta bonspiel. It’s Neufeld’s third time out west this fall, with stops in Penticton, B.C., Calgary, Red Deer, Alta., and Medicine Hat, Alta., still on the schedule.

The teams can move freely in wild rose country, and Neufeld isn’t required to quarantine when he arrives there or upon his return to Winnipeg.

“It’s worked out as good as it could for me,” he said Friday. “It’s been lucky for sure. I see Jason (Gunnlaugson’s) guys every once in a while, we go to the same gym, and it’s a tough time for them and all curlers in Manitoba. Strictly playing in the province and trying to get some games in and staying sharp, and now you can’t even practise.”

Recreational sport facilities were shut down Monday in Winnipeg and the capital region, part of the provincial government’s code-red health orders.

“It’s definitely not an ideal situation for curling right now. Hopefully, it doesn’t last too long,” said Neufeld. “You just feel for everybody, not just curlers but everyone affected by the shutdown. It’s a tough balancing act for the government. It’s such unprecedented times.”

Gunnlaugson’s reigning Manitoba men’s championship squad has played one event this fall, going with just three players (import Adam Casey remained in Charlottetown, P.E.I.) at Assiniboine Memorial in late October, while the Mike McEwen foursome has yet to play together but is slated to compete in the Penticton bonspiel, set for Nov. 13-16.

Neufeld said the World Curling Tour’s 10th-ranked team appreciates the unique advantage it’s enjoying.

“You definitely have to play this game. If you’re not playing, it’s hard to stay sharp, it’s hard to make strides and get better,” he said. “You gotta be in those situations, those tight games where you have to make a shot to win a tight game. There’s no way to practise that.

“We’re really happy about that. This is our third ’spiel and we’re still crossing our fingers that every other event is gonna go. And for us, too, being kind of a new team and having John join us, it’s been a fairly seamless transition so far. It’s a really good fit and we’re having some fun. But you need to play to get comfortable.”

Morris, one of Canada’s most decorated curlers, was recruited to replace Colton Flasch just a week after Koe’s team, the returning champions as Team Canada, had a disappointing run at the national men’s championship in Kingston, Ont., in early March.

Morris is a two-time Olympic gold medallist, winning mixed doubles in 2018 with Winnipeg’s Kaitlyn Lawes and the men’s title in 2010 playing third for Kevin Martin.

“I knew him pretty well before and we played him a ton. He brings a really special mindset to the team — his natural curling I.Q. is so high — and he’s super, super motivated. It’s been nice to see we’ve all really been on the same page a lot,” said Neufeld, a two-time Manitoba men’s champion with McEwen.

“He’s done everything there is to do in the game, but I can already see he has a desire and a hunger to do more. It’s an exciting makeup that we have here.”

Book-ending Neufeld and Morris are Koe, one of Canada’s all-time great skips, and Hebert, arguably the best lead in curling history. Neufeld admitted he’s still in awe of the guys with whom he goes to battle.

“I’ve caught myself a couple times this year thinking that. You’re on the sideboards and you’re looking at your teammates, Ben, John and Kevin, it’s a pretty lucky situation for me to be in, for sure,” he said. “They’ve done pretty much everything that I would like to accomplish in the sport and I feel super fortunate to be on the team contributing. If I could put my dream team down on paper, this is it.”

All of Koe’s curling matches this fall are being live-streamed as part of a deal the team struck with Strategy Lab, a Regina-based video and digital production company. On-ice cameras capture every shot, and players are wearing microphones. Winnipeg curling legend Jeff Stoughton is a guest analyst this weekend in Okotoks.

“We just figured why don’t we do it? Go above and beyond with what we are streaming, making some of our own commercials for our sponsors, turning this into something different and a positive,” Neufeld said.

There are so many unknowns right now as Canada’s top men’s and women’s teams await answers from Curling Canada on plans for a potential curling bubble that would host a Brier and Scotties in the new year. A retooled Olympic Trials qualification process also needs to be established.

But clearly that’s the goal for Neufeld and the Koe crew.

“Right now in the short term, it’s every ’spiel trying to get better, more in sync as a team. But definitely getting to the Olympic Trials, winning that and getting to the Olympics and winning there, that’s definitely the goal,” he said.

“The season will look a little different than usual. We won’t get the amount of games we normally get against the top-ranked teams in the country and world. We could possibly not play any of the best teams from across the pond until maybe a worlds or the Olympics right now the way it’s looking.

“The Olympics is definitely what we want.”

jason.bell@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @WFPJasonBell