Curler keeps close eye on his cutout dad
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 08/03/2021 (1863 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
JIM COTTER didn’t have the chance in eight previous Brier appearances to gaze up and find his father in the crowd.
But the British Columbia curler made sure dad was in Calgary this year — and not just in spirit.
Cotter had a cardboard cutout made of his late father, Rick, which is occupying a seat at WinSport Arena during the 2021 Canadian men’s curling championship.
He’s already locked eyes with the grinning image several times during the early stages of the Brier.
“My dad was an instrumental part of my curling career, so to be able to look up in the stands and see his big smile, even if it’s just a cutout, means the world to me,” Jim told the Free Press. “It’s pretty emotional.”
Rick, a former CN Rail employee who also managed the McArthur Curling Club in Kamloops, died 16 years ago.
“I keep kidding myself that it’s his first Brier, so to look up in the stands and see him there definitely makes it more comforting,” said Jim. “With the situation of what’s going on (the pandemic and a spectator-free Brier), I just thought it’d be nice. He was always there for me, so I wanted him here.”
Steve Laycock skips the B.C. squad, but Jim delivers the final two stones, while Andrew Nerpin plays second and Rick Sawatsky plays lead.
Rick had coached his son while he played in the junior ranks and during the early part of his men’s career. In fact, he would have been down at ice level for the 2005 Canadian Olympic Trials in Halifax coaching Jim as part of Pat Ryan’s Kelowna-based team.
He succumbed to cancer at the age of 60, three months before the event.
“He was battling lung cancer and passed away in September. (The trials in December) was my first major event. I didn’t get to a Brier until 2008 in Winnipeg,” Jim said.
Nearly 500 cardboard fan cutouts are in the virtual crowd inside the Calgary bubble, according to Curling Canada. Several curlers have images of family and friends in the stands.
Jim’s mother, Pat, his wife, Bobbi, and the couple’s three kids are home in Vernon with fingers crossed that Team B.C. can snap its two-game winless skid to begin the Brier.
Jaelyn, 21, is a terrific young curler, partnering with her dad to win the provincial mixed doubles title in 2016. The Cotters went on to the nationals in Saskatoon that year and then returned in 2017.
“We do plan on playing again, assuming everything’s a go next season. We’ll make another go at it, until some young, strapping fellow comes along and she’ll dump her dad,” Jim said, laughing.
“When we won the B.C. provincials together, that was one of the coolest experiences of my life.”
jason.bell@freepress.mb.ca
Twitter: @WFPJasonBell
