There will be 16 rinks in Estevan for the SaskTel Tankard this week, but only one of them will be able to fly the province’s colours at the Tim Hortons Brier in Regina next month. The draws start Wednesday at 2:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., with the winners determining the rest of the draws.
Here are some capsule profiles of the rinks coming to Estevan, based on their ranking coming into the week:
1 Skip: Steve Laycock, third Matthew Dunstone, second Kirk Muyres, lead Dallan Muyres. (Saskatoon Nutana). Laycock has skipped three provincial champions and has consistently played well among the best of the country on the Canadian Curling Tour. He’ll want to make up for his rink’s loss at the SCT Tour Championship earlier this month to Adam Casey in Humboldt. Losing Colton Flasch to allow him to skip his own rink was mitigated by the addition of Dunstone, a former national junior champion from Manitoba. Laycock was second on one of the Pat Simmons provincial winners, and lead on two others and has curled with the Muyres brothers for years.
2 Skip: Adam Casey, third Brock Montgomery, second Shaun Meachem, lead Dustin Kidby. (Regina Highland) Casey won this event last year in Tisdale, knocking off Laycock for the first time in four years. Casey is a former bronze medalist at the Canada Winter Games, a former Canadian junior champion in 2009 and a former member of Brad Gushue’s rink, going to the Brier three times as his second. He’s joined by former provincial junior champion Brock Montgomery (who replaces current John Morris team member Catlin Schnieder from last year’s Tankard champions) from Moose Jaw. Montgomery’s 2000 provincial junior title winning team featured Estevan’s Brent Gedak at third.
3 Skip: Colton Flasch, third Kevin Marsh, second Dan Marsh, lead Trent Knapp (Saskatoon Nutana). Flasch was second on three Laycock provincial championships and second on Braeden Moskowy’s 2011 provincial and national junior men’s championship team. The current rink backed Bruce Korte for a few years, and Korte now serves as their coach. The team, although newly formed, had success right away when they won the Canadian Curling Tour’s College Clean Restoration Championship in Saskatoon in October.
4 Skip: Joshua Heidt, third Kody Hartung, second Tyler Hartung, lead Kelly Knapp (Kerrobert). Aslo skipping a fairly new rink, Heidt finished third in the Medicine Hat Charity Classic on the Canadian Curling Tour earlier this season. Heidt won the 2015 Weatherford Classic, so he does have experience winning here in Estevan. Both members of his back end have had provincial junior championship experience
5 Skip: Brent Gedak, third Clint Dieno, second Derek Owens, lead Shawn Meyer. (Estevan) Forever knocking on the door but always just a little bit short, Gedak has a chance this year to finally break through into the championship. He and his rink had a great year in the province, winning in Saskatoon to be the first automatic qualifier. If Gedak wins, he’d be the first Estevan skip to win the Tankard since Jim Packet in 1997.
6 Skip Brock Virtue, third Drew Heidt, second Mitch Heidt, lead Jesse St. John. (Kerrobert). Heidt has skipped rinks to the Tankard before but cedes skip stones this week to Virtue, the 2013 Tankard champion from Regina. Virtue also lost the Tankard final in 2014 and hasn’t been back to the Tankard since.
7 Skip Carl deConinck Smith, third Jeff Sharp, second Brady Scharback, lead Mark Larsen. (Rosetown) Like Gedak, deConinck Smith has been sniffing around the edges of the provincial Tankard title without actually winning it for a few years. He was two wins short of the playoffs last year, edged out 6-5 by Jason Ackerman in the D semifinal.
8 Skip Jason Jacobson, third Jacob Hersikorn, second Quinn Hersikorn, lead Nick Neufeld. (Saskatoon Nutana) Former junior champion Hersikorn brothers join Jacobson, and together they had the top Sask Curling Tour points among those who didn’t automatically qualify through winning. Jacobson lost the 2015 Tankard final to 8-7 to Laycock. His second a couple of years ago was deConinck Smith.
9 Skip Ryan Deis, third Scott Manners, second Jason Barnhart, lead Kalin Deis. (Fox Valley) Manners was the 2012 Tankard Champion with Ryan Deis as the second. The reshuffling of the team helped them win their second Regina Highland qualifying ‘spiel to get back to the Tankard.
10 Skip Scott Bitz, third Warren Jackson, second Aryn Schmidt, lead Rory Golanowski (Saskatoon Sutherland). Winning here at the Power Dodge Curling Centre was the Bitz rink’s direct entry here. He won provincial titles as a skip (2002) and as Joel Jordison’s third in 2009, with Schmidt as second. Golanowski was the lead on the 2004 winner Bruce Korte’s rink.
11 Skip Randy Bryden, third Troy Robinson, second John Aston, lead Malcolm Vanstone (Regina Callie). Bitz beat the Bryden rink to qualify but Bryden made it through in the southern playdowns. Bryden won three provincial junior crowns in the late 1980s. Much more recently, he made the three-four Page Playoff game in 2015, losing to Jacobson but was winless in the 2017 Tankard.
12 Skip Jeff Hartung, third Jason Krupski, third Mat Ring, lead Brandon Leippi (Langenburg). Hartung was the top qualifier for the 2015 Page Playoff but lost the one-two game to Laycock and the next game to Jacobson. This year, they won the Farmer’s Edge Saskatchewan Curling Tour event in Wadena to qualify, drawing hometown favourite Brent Gedak in the first match.
13 Skip Brady Kendal, third Anthony Neufeld, second Cole Tenetiuk, lead Chadd McKenzie (Saskatoon Sutherland). Former member of the Hersikorn rink that won the provincial junior title twice, Kendal is skipping his first Tankard rink although Tenetiuk and McKenzie have been at this level before with the Dree Heidt rink. As lead on the Brady Scharback rink last year, Kendal went 1-3.
14 Skip Brayden Stewart, third Jared Latos, second Evan Latos, lead Brody Blackwell (Saskatoon Sutherland). No one need look for any further evidence that the youth are taking over than this rink. After losing the junior provincial final, the Stewart rink picked up the last spot in the northern playdowns this year, sealing it by defeating 1985 and 1988 Tankard winner Eugene Hritzuk, whose titles were won about a decade before Stewart and his team were born.
15 Skip Daniel Selke, third Garret Springer, third Drew Springer, lead Jake Ripplinger (Regina Callie). They made the semifinal in the Moose Jaw bonspiel that Gedak won. Selke was third on the Mike Armstrong rink at the Tankard in 2014 that lost three in a row to bow out quickly. Selke upset Jason Ackerman to nab the last spot in southern playdowns.
16 Skip Aaron Shutra, third Justin Heather, second Jayden Shwaga, lead Rob Marsh (Saskatoon Nutana). The Shutra rink qualified through northern playdowns this year. Shutra has been the lead several times on Tankard rinks skipped by Shaun Meacham and Kevin Marsh.
