Depending on how the week goes, there may be a home-cooked team dinner at Pat Cotter’s house.
But they won’t be bunking down in Pat’s basement.
It will be all business at the Tim Hortons Brier Canadian men’s curling championships, starting Saturday in Kamloops, for the Vernon-Kelowna championship rink of Jim Cotter, skip John Morris, second Tyrel Griffith and lead Rick Sawatsky. Jody Epp of Duncan has been added as fifth man.
Cotter, who, along with fellow Vernonite Sawatsky is making his fourth Brier appearance, opens at 1:30 p.m. Saturday at the Interior Savings Centre against 2010 Canadian champ Kevin Koe of Alberta.
“We’re super excited,” said Cotter. “We just finished a two-and-a-half day training camp in Vernon, had a couple of practices, couple of meetings, and getting the last-minute stuff out of the way. We’re super pumped.”
Added Sawatsky: “I was probably more excited for the first Brier, being it was my first one, but it’s a different sort of sense for me now. I’m not excited to the point I’m like a little kid on Christmas Day. I’m more excited to be playing in my home province and having the hometown support. I’m excited for both.”
Morris is making his seventh Brier appearance and is seeking his third national title. He hopes to give B.C. its first Brier win since New Westminster’s Greg McAulay won in Saskatoon in 2000.
“I’ve been checking the schedule, see how the week will transpire,” said Morris. “If you don’t get excited for a Brier, it’s time to hang it up.
“It’s one of the most traditional events we have in our game, and coming through those doors, especially as the hometown team, nothing gets you tingling more than that.”
And the Morris-Cotter foursome will definitely have the hometown support, thanks mainly to the fact Cotter’s roots are firmly entrenched in Kamloops.
He learned the game, along with his sister, Chelan, starting at age seven from his parents, Rick and Pat, who ran the junior program at the Kamloops Curling Club with 300 kids registered for years.
“Chelan and I, we curled together in a family league with 16 teams which is just phenomenal, and we also played in the CN league,” said Cotter, a reference to his late father working for the railway as a computer tech (mom Pat was a stay-at-home mom who had odd jobs cleaning houses).
“My parents taught me to have a lot of respect for the game. Dad would say speak with your hands, not with your mouth and that’s always stuck with me.”
Said Sawatsky: “The Brier is definitely important to Jim with him coming from Kamloops, and especially his dad and mom involved in the curling community.
“Jim was the face of junior curling in Kamloops when we were growing up together. It’s going to be real special for him to go back to his hometown and play in front of all of his family and a lot of his friends coming out and cheering him on. It should be pretty cool.”
While there may be pressure on the foursome to do well playing in front of family and friends, Morris expects his rink will be primed. They lost the Roar of the Rings Olympic qualifying tournament in Winnipeg to reigning Brier winner Brad Jacobs of Sault. Ste. Marie, who went on to win gold in Sochi.
“We’ve worked really hard on our psychology and our mental preparation this year,” said Morris. “Jimmy and everyone else will be nothing but 100 per cent prepared going into that first game. Compared to the pressure of the (Olympic) trials, especially that last game, from my perspective, it doesn’t get any higher than that for pressure.
“It was a great experience to go through and that will help us here (in Kamloops). I only see nothing but positives for us coming out as the hometown team.”
It will be a star-studded field in Kamloops.
Jeff Stoughton of Manitoba will be looking for a fourth Brier championship (he won his first in Kamloops in 1996). Koe’s brother Jamie represents the Territories. Quebec’s Jean-Michel Menard won the Brier in 2006. Brad Gushue of Newfoundland is an 11-time provincial champion and Olympic gold medalist who is seeking his first tankard.
Rounding out the field are Jamie Murphy (Nova Scotia); James Grattan (New Brunswick); Jeff Currie (Northern Ontario); Eddie MacKenzie (Prince Edward Island); Steve Laycock (Saskatchewan); and Greg Balsdon (Ontario), who ended four-time Brier winner Glenn Howard’s run of eight consecutive Ontario championships.
The winner in Kamloops will go to the world championships in Beijing at the end of March and, for the first time in Brier history, the winner in Kamloops will become Team Canada and will return in 2015 at the Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary to defend its title.
Cotter’s draw at the Brier:
Saturday: 1:30 p.m vs Alta; 6:30 p.m vs Northern Ontario;
Sunday: 1:30 p.m. vs Que; 6:30 p.m. vs NS;
Monday: 6:30 p.m. vs PEI;
Tuesday: 8:30 a.m. vs Territories; 1:30 p.m vs NB;
Wednesday: 8 a.m. vs Nfld; 1 p.m. vs Ont;
Thursday, 8:30 a.m. vs Man; 6:30 p.m. vs Sask;
The final is Sunday, March 9 at 4:30 p.m.
