Freeman finds patience and determination pay off

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This article was published 04/03/2025 (248 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Jace Freeman usually only shows emotion on the ice after a rare, imperfect shot.

On Sunday, the emotions came pouring out as he and teammates Luke Robins, Nick Senff, Timothy Marin and coach Graham Freeman all grabbed each other in a group hug after winning the Co-ops of Manitoba junior curling provincial championship at the Brandon Curling Cub.

Following that, Freeman could no longer fight off the tears that came just after capturing his first under-21 junior provincial title.

After dropping the final the last two years, the outpouring of emotion came with the realization that he’d reached a goal that felt like a lifetime in the making.

After a year of highs and lows as well as one-sided victories and crushing defeats, to endure a hard-fought final to earn the title made it that much sweeter in the end.

“It’s something that really was our main goal coming into this year,” said Freeman.

“Having lost the final the last two years, I’ve re-watched those games so many times knowing we could’ve won those, so to finish it off here in a great game and having battled all week it means so much.”

The Virden product tends to be hardest on himself while encouraging to his teammates, and this weekend wasn’t much different as he pointed out he didn’t have his best performance but did enough for a meaningful victory.

“That’s just the way I am. I want to be the best that I can for my team every game and every shot,” said Freeman.

As much pressure as he puts on himself, he’s able to quickly forget about it and move on, which was required in Sunday’s championship, but also earlier this year at the Viterra Championship.

After opening the men’s provincial championship with a 9-2 win over Dean Dunstone, Freeman and his team were instantly humbled with a 10-3 loss to Brett Walter.

That mindset was required on Sunday and paid off in spades.

“It’s just about resetting,” said Freeman. “Taking a look at the scoreboard and knowing that you’re still in a good position, knowing your team is still going to make their shots in front of you. I know I need to re-group and it worked out that I was able to this weekend.”

He had to work for Sunday’s championship after cruising through the preliminary round with a record of 5-1.

Freeman had one, very minor show of emotion in Sunday morning’s playoff round against Owen Girouard.

After a shot that wasn’t perfect, Freeman was visibly frustrated with himself, but quickly put it aside and went right back to work in his team’s 10-3 win.

That set up Sunday’s final, which proved to be another win that didn’t come easily.

Morden’s Nash Sugden tied the game 4-4 in the eighth end before Freeman blanked the ninth.

Having played in high-pressure situations plenty of times this season and against some of the top teams in the province, Freeman calmly kept two stones in the house through-out the 10th end, eventually running Sugden out of rocks to win 6-4.

While it was a pressure-packed way to win the final, it felt like the all the pressure situations they’d been in this season prepared them for this moment.

“We played mostly men’s events all year, so playing against that calibre of teams helps so much because we know we have to play at a very high level all the time,” said Freeman.

“We know what to expect from opponents, we know what to expect of ourselves and it just helps to keep you consistent.”

While a provincial title is enough to hang his hat on, seeing the growth of his young, first-year team could be the greatest reward.

Although he’s played with Luke Robins and Nick Senff the past two years, this was the first year with third Timothy Marin.

Marin moved to Winnipeg from New Brunswick at the start of the season and fits in with the trio seamlessly, but having qualified for nationals as Manitoba finalists last year, Freeman is hoping to improve on last year’s third-place finish.

“We were thinking long term when we put this together, and we knew that if we could get out of Manitoba this year we’d have good chance going forward. It’s going to be a very tough field at nationals, but that’s our goal, to reach the podium again and make it one game further to the final,” said Freeman.

The Curling Canada junior national championship runs March 22-30 in Summerside, P.E.I.

Sugden’s rink of Ryan Thiessen, Tanner Treichel, and Tyler Fehr also qualified for the national tournament as Manitoba’s runners-up.

» mpackwood@brandonsun.com