by Martin Gavin
Special to Northern News Services
Jamie Koe and his rink from the Yellowknife Curling Centre will enter this year's Tim Hortons Brier as one of the most experienced teams in the field.
In fact, Team NWT is the second-most experienced team in the field with 40 appearances between its team members, second only to the defending Brier champion, Brad Gushue of Newfoundland and Labrador, who will play in this year’s field as Team Canada.
“It’s a real opportunity to come to the Brier and get the experience playing against the top teams. Every year, we improve or find areas for improvement,” said Koe during the 2017 Brier.
“(The NWT) are here every year and they are tough,” said Gushue, “You know they are a tough team which we are glad to have behind us in the round-robin each year.”
Gushue is speaking from real experience as Koe handed Gushue one of only two losses in the 2017 version of the Brier.
“It's nice to beat Brad,” said Koe.” They are a great team (and) they win everything. We had to play our best.”
Koe's rink of Chris Schille, Brad Chorostkowski and Robert Borden square off in their first game tomorrow night in Regina against a newcomer to the Canadian men’s curling championship, that being Newfoundland and Labrador's Greg Smith.
Smith had high praise for his first ever Brier opponent.
“Playing Jamie Koe in our first game is going to be incredible,” he said. “He is a legend out of the North and I’ve been watching him ever since I started curling. It’s a game I’m certainly looking forward to playing.”
“These kids will be new and pumped and ready to go, which is scary,” said Koe. “Should be a good battle (and) whoever picks up the ice and rocks quickest will have the advantage.”
The championship begins yet another new format this year with a two-pool system of eight teams each. The top four teams in each pool will advance to a championship pool and the remaining eight will play one more game for show and hit the road.
“I think we match up well with five teams in our pool so if we peak at the right time, we have a decent chance to move on to the next round,” said Koe when asked about his chances.
The ranking system ranked the northerners 16th in a field of 16, which was a surprise to many Northerners and Koe's fans.
“The teams are ranked based on Canadian team ranking points for that year,” said a Curling Canada spokesperson. “If there is tie, a random number generator is utilized to break the tie. In this case, the Yellowknife team was tied with the Nunavut representative from Iqaluit and placed in 16th spot by the algorithm.”
There will be no Koe vs. Koe game at this year’s championship as Kevin Koe was not able to play in the Alberta Boston Pizza Cup playdowns. He was busy in South Korea representing Canada in the Olympics. Jamie was on hand in South Korea with his whole family supporting Kevin and feels that the time away will not affect his performance in the Bier in Regina,
“I'm battling jet lag right now but I am almost over it,” he said. “I'm throwing well and on track for the first game.”
Chorostkowski has made a name for himself in Canadian curling circles as well. Yellowknife’s own version of Cal Ripken Jr., who holds the record for the most consecutive games played in Major League Baseball history, has moved up among curling’s most elite players in games played and appearances at the Brier. This Brier will see Brad slide into third place, one appearance behind Gushue, for overall Brier appearances with 14 and also one game ahead of curling great Kevin Martin in games played.
“It’s interesting that I have played that many games,” said Chorostkowski. “Too bad my win/loss record isn’t as good as Kevin Martin or Russ Howard.”