If hard work, a lot of talent, and that try-try-again mentality is all it takes, the Allan Becker 1973 High School Curling Team proved they're worthy to be inducted into the Humboldt and District Sports Hall of Fame.
Four youngsters in high school in Fulda started the team in 1970, but hadn't immediately gotten very far. Filled with too much confidence and not enough experience, they decided to throw themselves in the deep end and play against adults. The team was made up of Allan Becker at skip, Harvey Niebrugge at third, Kevin Kalthoff at second, and the late Terry Loxterkamp at lead.
"There was lots of curling going on and we wanted to be like (the adults), so we decided to go for it," said Kalthoff. "We were playing against adult teams and got our (butts) kicked, but we learned a lot."
The boys had all been friends before deciding to make a team. Their positions on the team came naturally and stuck throughout their high school athletic career. Unlike many others, it was fortunate that they always seemed to get along. Even a game loss couldn't come between them.
"That was my life at the time. When I went out, it was with my best friends, who were my teammates," said Kalthoff. "With any team, you have to get along. We never had an argument. We didn't always agree, but even after a big loss, we didn't get mad, we just knew we had to do better."
When the boys were in Grade 11, they lost to a Saskatoon team during semifinals, but were told that they were the toughest team the Saskatoon team had played against. Those words gave the Becker team the boost they needed to play against big city teams.
"We felt like we had something to prove," said Kalthoff. "It felt like we could win against anything."
During that same Grade 11 year, the team was winning about half or more of the games they played against adults. By Grade 12, that number of successes had rocketed up to about 90 per cent.
It was around that time that they went head to head with a men's team from Humboldt in a bonspiel. The team was said to be the best around.
The Becker team beat them too.
"That gave us the confidence to take on any high school team," said Kalthoff. "We thought we could beat anyone, thought we were strong and we were."
Following that win, the boys only lost one game in their next provincial playoffs during their final year of high school. They had been playing in all the smaller surrounding towns and their initial losses against the adult teams paid off.
According to Kalthoff, everyone knew that they paid their dues so that their subsequent successes weren't flukes. They had taken their earlier losses in stride and learned as much as they could from the adults that beat them.
"Being so young and being to do that was unique," he said. "Doing it so young, we learned a lot. It made us better and we learned a lot as we played the adults."
Moreover, since there wasn't much else to do, Kalthoff at least said curling became a large part of his life. Rather than practicing, he and his team spent so much time playing against adults that all of their education came from the competitions itself.
"Fulda had a lot of good players, so we got a lot of good tips and coaching," he said. "I'd say coaching-wise, we didn't really have a teacher. We had to have a chaperone for school competitions who dealt with the (administrative) elements, but we learned from our mistakes and our successes."
Kalthoff said that when the team started winning, they learned what formula worked and stuck with it. He said they played with a lot of confidence and believed they should win every game. It seemed that confidence wasn't without good reason.
During their last provincial finals, they beat a team from Regina that included Randy Woytowich, who they were told was going to beat them by a high school teacher.
"We were looking forward to beating him," said Kalthoff. "We beat him both times we played against them in the provincials. We were also excited to beat a big city team."
After that provincial tournament, the team went to Moncton to play in a national championship. They ended up third in Canada with an 8-3 record.
Once their high school life was over, Kalthoff played on a junior team, but didn't win the championship either year. Eventually, they went their separate ways and Kalthoff ended up joining an adult team. Some continued curling, some didn't, but the legacy they started in high school will forever remain special to at least one of the members (if not all).
"At that time, there wasn't really any other Humboldt teams that won a provincial championship," said Kalthoff. "It was quite an accomplishment. We're very proud of it. (A team of) four kids from small town Saskatchewan is special to me because we're all friends."
