The world’s best male curlers may have come and gone from Halifax, but curling spirit is definitely still “in the house” at Dal.
It’s been a big year for Canada’s other iconic ice sport with Halifax hosting the 2015 Ford Men’s World Curling Championships, which wrapped up last weekend. But it’s also been a big curling year at Dal specifically, with Engineering student Adam Casey serving as skip for Team Prince Edward Island at the Brier and Dal’s own curling squad making it all the way to the Canadian Interuniversity Sports (CIS) championships.
Competitive curling on campus
“It can be a very long season,” says Joseph Raymond, second on the Dalhousie Men’s Curling Team and second-year student at Dal. “It’s kind of unique in that university curling isn’t the only curling that we do. A lot of us have our own junior teams where we compete at the national junior championships in the hopes that we can compete at the men’s championships and the Brier one day.” (The Brier is the national men’s championship; the Tournament of Hearts is the national women's tournament.)
In February, the Dal team traveled to Montague, PEI to compete in the AUS Subway Curling Championships alongside other Atlantic universities. They ended up placing third in the tournament and qualifying for the CIS Canada Curling Championship, but received some bad news while on the road: the roof of the Halifax Curling Club had collapsed in the winter storm, and with it the team’s primary training facility.
Talk is underway about building another curling club where the previous one collapsed, but it won’t be ready in time for the coming season. Despite this, Raymond is adamant that the team will maintain close ties with the local club and be active within fundraising efforts to offset costs for it’s reconstruction.
“It definitely made preparing for the CIS a little bit difficult which was reflected in our standing,” says Joseph, as the team finished 1-6 at nationals, “but we’re trying to re-assess how we’re going to prepare for next year. We’re very big supporters of the Halifax Curling Club, so anything that we can do help them out in their endeavours, we would be happy to help.”
More imminent than finding a new training facility, the team is facing the task of finding a new skip (the team’s captain) and keeping an eye out this summer for potential recruits. “That’s going to be a big role to fill. It opens the door for a lot of great skips that are out there, and a lot of good talent to be here that can really boost our team.”
Brier bound
While none of the members of the Men’s curling team, on their own, qualified to compete in the Brier this year, another Dalhousie student did. Adam Casey, Engineering masters’ student, was the skip for Team PEI at the 2015 Tim Hortons Brier. Casey competed in the last three Briers for Newfoundland and Labrador, but this year’s tournament was his first time representing PEI, and his first time skipping at the national men’s championship level.
“This year was different because I was skipping, which I hadn’t done in the past,” says Adam. “The first year I competed it was in Edmonton, and it’s an 18,000-seat arena and there’s thousands of people watching on television, so it’s a different outlook to adjust to. The past three years I think I’ve grown and matured a lot, and I obviously know more about the game.”
For Adam, the most important thing about being a competitive athlete is striking a balance. At the Brier especially, juggling autograph sessions, television breaks and commercials with playing several matches a day turned out to be an acquired skill. On top of all that, he’s also working on his thesis project in applied science.
“There’s not a whole lot of down time, so it’s about making sure that you properly warm up, cool down, try to maintain a certain level of fitness throughout the week, make sure you get your rest, and stay mentally focused.
“Over the years, I’ve gotten a lot better at doing work on the road, but obviously it’s a big commitment when you’re putting 30-plus hours into curling practice, going to the gym, trying to support the team, and at the same time trying to manage a job and school work.”
Despite the busy schedule of the Brier, Adam is proud of his teammates. After tying for seventh place, he says they’re happy with the way they performed and are turning it into a learning experience. One of the main things they’re doing is reviewing what they did well, the ways that they lost and where they can do better in order to benefit for future chances and competitions.
“I’m finishing my thesis so I’ll probably be in St. John’s for the next month, but once I’m back in PEI, I’ll be focusing on getting a team together, getting training, developing a support team and trying to take the next step to figure out what we need to do to get better,” says Adam. “ It’s about making sure we check off all those little boxes so that when the season rolls around, we’re ready to go.”