Team Koe will once again represent the territory at the Montana’s Brier thanks to their win at the the NWT Men’s Curling Championship in Inuvik this past weekend.
The verdict was in after Koe swept their lone challenger, Team Saturnino out of Inuvik, in three straight draws in the best-of-five event, accomplishing the feat with one less broom on the ice as third Glen Kennedy ended up pulling out due to injury before the first draw on Jan. 26.
“It feels pretty good,” said skip Jamie Koe. “There was only a couple teams and our third was injured, so we had to go with three and we weren’t quite sure how it was going to go.
“The guys had sweep a lot, so they’re pretty tired, so kudos to them for sticking it out. If there’s only one sweeper instead of two, it’s a lot on those guys, but physically they maintained it. It was a tough ride.”
The loss of Kennedy meant lead Shadrach McLeod and second Cole Parsons each threw three rocks each instead of the requisite two. Koe still threw two skip’s stones each end.
With scores of 9-7, 8-2 and 8-5 across the three draws, Koe attributed his team’s victory to a simple factor.
“We scored points when we had to,” he said. “Last game was really tight, they played well and really took it to us down to the wire.
“They had a chance to beat us, but I think our experience in these events put us over the edge.”
But with the ticket to Regina all punched and ready to go, the question now is what happens if Kennedy isn’t ready to go by the time of the start of the Brier? Kennedy is designated as the out-of-territory player, while Koe, who now calls Edmonton home, is eligible to play with the NWT under Curling Canada’s birthright rule as he was born in Yellowknife.
Koe said there are alternate scenarios being worked out right now.
“We’ll be talking with both Curling Canada and NWT Curling about what the rules are around import players and our options,” he said. “Glen’s starting to come around, so we’ll see how that plays out, but we need to get everything sorted as quickly as possible.
With the national championship now in his sights, Koe said he and his teammates were looking forward to a week of solid competition.
“It’s a big venue, big fans,” he said. “It’s going to be in Regina, where my first Brier was. So it’s kind of back to that home.
“It’s great to be playing in Inuvik in front of some cool fans and play where my roots are.”
The Brier runs from March 1 to 10 in Regina.
Teaching the next generation how to rock
Team Koe didn’t just come to Inuvik to clean house. They also spent an evening providing tips and feedback to one of the up and coming representatives of Team NT.
Team Willkomm will be representing the territory at the Arctic Winter Games in Mat-Su, Alaska this coming March and they now have a few tips from the big boys in their arsenal.
”Team Koe played a two-end game against the boys, but really slowed things down,” said coach Mark Robertson. “They showed the boys good habits each position should work on developing such as positioning of the skip/third in the house to improve line calling, the first and second cleaning shot paths prior to a shot and watching the opponents shots as intently as they watch their own.
“Team Koe also left the boys with 12 of their Team Koe broomhead covers. It was a super positive experience for Team Willkomm to lead them into their three big events over the next six weeks.”
Team Willkomm will be playing at the Leduc U15 Junior Bonspiel Feb. 2 to 4 and Rock the Rings from Feb. 16 to 18 in Yellowknife. The Arctic Winter Games run from March 10 to 16.
-with files from James McCarthy