Witherspoon back on the ice as a skip

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This article was published 11/01/2018 (3044 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

After taking a few years away from the pebbled ice to focus on his career, Joey Witherspoon is back in competitive curling.

He’s back in the house as well.

The 26-year-old from Carberry is skipping a Winnipeg-based foursome that includes Corey Chambers, Taylor McIntyre and Kody Janzen and they’re in the Wheat City this weekend for the 127th annual Brandon Men’s Bonspiel. Witherspoon admitted he missed the game and just couldn’t stay away.

“The couple of years I took off were good, but I really started to miss it, especially this time of year when you are in the regionals and up for provincials,” he said. “I really enjoyed that part of the game, the competitive part of it.

“I played in a men’s league and that sort of thing, but it’s that competitive end of January, early February that gets you fired up and when you’re not involved I always missed it.”

Witherspoon had a solid junior career and reached the provincial final in 2012 before falling 9-3 to Kyle Doering. After spending the following season as third for Rob Van Kommer, Witherspoon joined Steve Irwin’s Brandon-based team as third for the 2013-14 season and found more success. Irwin, Witherspoon, Travis Taylor and Travis Saban reached the 3-vs.-4 Page playoff game at men’s provincials, where they lost 9-8 to William Lyburn.

However, Witherspoon eventually withdrew from the roaring game to focus on schooling — he studied green space management at Red River College — and his job as assistant superintendent at the Breezy Bend Country Club in Headingley before deciding to return this season.

The year has gone decently well for the new foursome. They reached the semifinals at a pair of Manitoba Curling Tour events and reached the playoffs in another. The foursome was in three qualifying games at the MCT Championship, but lost each time and missed the playoffs.

Overall, he’s happy with what a new team with a first-time men’s skip at the helm has been able to accomplish.

“There’s been some hiccups this year and it probably hasn’t gone as well as we would have hoped coming into the year but I enjoy the challenge of skipping and I’ve gotten to see first-hand this year just how difficult this province is,” Witherspoon said. “You have your top-tier guys like (Mike) McEwen and (Jason) Gunnlaugson and (Reid) Carruthers, but there’s so much depth in Manitoba. All these ’spiels you go to in Manitoba, even if it’s second-tiered teams, it’s still always difficult and it’s a challenge.

“It’s been good, we’d like to have seen a few more results out of it. I’m remembering now just how tough it is. There’s no such thing as a cakewalk here.”

That depth of quality teams in Manitoba was on display last weekend at the Viterra Championship Winnipeg regional playdowns.

Witherspoon had two chances to book his ticket to men’s provincials in Winkler, but he fell to David Bohn in an A-event final and then lost to Travis Bale in a B-event final.

Although he always planned to play in the Brandon Men’s Bonspiel’s competitive division because some of the team’s sponsors are from Westman and he likes playing in the southwest corner of the province, this weekend is now more important as it’s his team’s final chance to earn a berth to the Viterra Championship.

Witherspoon isn’t playing the Manitoba Open, which is the last event of the year in which spots to the Viterra are awarded.

He’ll be competing with 14 other teams at the Brandon and Riverview clubs, although four — Irwin, Brett Walter, Cale Dunbar and Sean Grassie — already have their spots. The other teams in the field are Graham Freeman, Tyler Waterhouse, Curtis McCannell, Kyle Foster, Jerry Chudley, Daley Peters, Shawn Taylor, Murray Warren, Brayden Payette and Butch Mouck.

The competitive division begins play on Friday at 10 a.m., with the final slated for Sunday at 3:30 p.m., at the Brandon club.

“We’re excited. With the spot on the line, it will be our last chance to get into provincials so this is all or nothing this weekend,” Witherspoon said. “It’s always fun to come to play in Brandon, Carberry, anywhere in Westman. We don’t get out there that often with other commitments it’s easier to stay around the city and that’s where a lot of events are.

“It’s always nice to get back to Westman. I played a lot in Brandon when I was in juniors so it’s always nostalgic to come back there to play. We’re going to have fun and we’re optimistic. We’re not going in there putting too much pressure on ourselves. We’ll just enjoy it and hopefully things go well.”

Meanwhile, the recreation division features 27 teams with play beginning this evening and wrapping up on Sunday.

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