Curlers take to ice for late skip

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This article was published 18/01/2018 (2808 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Manitoba Open is a social highlight of the season for many local curlers.

But for the Reg Wiebe team, which consists of expat Canadians throwing skip and third rocks, a second who was born and raised in the Netherlands and a temporary replacement at lead from Winnipeg, the fun of participating in the celebrated bonspiel will be tempered by the sadness of competing without their leader.

Wiebe, a former Winnipegger who had lived in the Netherlands for 28 years, died suddenly of an aortic aneurysm on Dec. 20. He was only 55.

His curling buddies hesitated only briefly when they considered whether to go through with plans to travel to Canada and play at the Open in Wiebe’s hometown this week.

“A few years ago, Reg had talked about this tournament,” recalled Andrew Grant, a 43-year-old from Sackville, N.B., who has lived and worked in Europe since 2000.

“It was on his bucket list of what he wanted to do. He wanted to play in the MCA (the Open’s former name) at the time and so the rest of the team had decided, ‘Oh yeah, that would be really good. Let’s try to organize that.’”

And so, Grant, Scott Moon, Thomas Levi Kooi and Wiebe’s brother-in-law Pete Willms, a Winnipegger, followed through on their plans, playing three games in a bonspiel in Beausejour last week, followed by tune-up games at the Deer Lodge and Granite clubs in the days leading up to the Open. They took on Dan Leblanc’s squad from Gimli in their first Open game Thursday night at the Charleswood Curling Club.

Grant’s original plan to stay at home changed after Wiebe’s death.

“My family decided that it would be good to remember Reg by coming out here and curling for him,” Grant said. “It’ll probably be quite emotional out there. We’re doing this for him and we’re doing it for the team to remember Reg. It’ll be emotional, but this is how we get through things.”

The four teammates were based in and around The Hague and curled at a club in nearby Zuidermeer.

Moon, a third who hails from Calgary but has worked as an aerospace engineer in his adopted country for the past 11 years, said the trip to Canada serves as a tribute to their friend.

“It’s a little emotional,” Moon said. “We had a tough time at the funeral, but he wanted us to live life and enjoy it, have fun. It was a short discussion. We had to talk it over with his widow (Ingrid) first. We all wanted to go.”

With heavy hearts, the Wiebe rinkmates still plan to make the most of their visit.

“I mean, curling will never be the same when he’s not there, but he wanted us to enjoy it,” Moon said.

“This will be tough because he should be here. I think we can still have fun.”

Kooi, a 23-year-old who works as a consultant in e-governance for the provincial government at home, was thrilled to be back in the home of curling.

“Reg meant a lot to all of us,” said Kooi, who was a member of the Dutch team that finished out of the playoffs at last year’s world mixed doubles championship in Lethbridge, Alta.

“He was a mentor to me. He was a skip on the ice and also my coach for the mixed-doubles team. He always had one dream to play at this tournament, so we knew in this homage, we had to be here.”

Willms, Wiebe’s brother-in-law, is throwing lead rocks this week and is looking forward to a celebration on Jan. 23, when teammates and family members celebrate what would have been Reg’s 56th birthday.

Willms remembered how concerned Wiebe was about him last month.

“He phoned me a week before because he was more worried about me, because I’m 61 and I hadn’t curled in a while,” said Willms, whose brother-in-law owned two New York Pizza franchises in his adopted country. “He was like, ‘How are you doing?’”

Action at the Open continues until Monday, with event finals slated for 7 p.m. A 64-team half-bonspiel runs today to Sunday.

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.caTwitter: @sawa14