Skip Rylan Campbell uses draw game to perfection at U18 provincials

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This article was published 10/01/2024 (618 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Knowing he’s not a strong hitter, Altona skip Rylan Campbell of Brandon relied on his draw game.

“I like to play draws,” he said of his game strategy at the Asham under-18 men’s provincial curling championship held at the Selkirk Curling Club. “I’m not a big hitting guy … I throw shots I can make which is how I approach every end.

“If I’m facing (a skip) who likes to hit, then I force him to draw, which means he’s likely to miss more.”

Campbell’s strategy worked to perfection during the five-day provincial competition, playing alongside third Logan Zacharias, second Nick Senff and lead Rylan Graham.

Campbell’s foursome finished the round-robin undefeated at 4-0. He then played Morden’s Nash Sugden’s team in the first-versus-first playoff game, which Sugden won 8-5 in an extra end.

Campbell then beat Kieran Callaewart out of Winnipeg 6-4 in his semi-final, to set up the rematch against Sugden in the final.

This is where Campbell’s draw game was played to perfection, needing only seven ends to defeat Sugden handily 11-1 in the final.

“The game really changed from when we lost in an extra end to when we played in the final,” recalled the 18-year-old who graduated from Vincent Massey in 2023. “I think it helped we played the semi-final in the morning because we had a better handle on the ice (conditions). We knew what the ice was doing … it was tricky, and the rocks were moving at different speeds on different sheets.

“We had a curl of four to five feet, then a two to three feet curl. We figured this out before we played in the finals, where Nash’s team did not play in the morning, so I’d say we had an advantage.”

With Campbell as skip, his game strategy to start an end is to always get guards up early.

“We like to get walls into play, and throw my opponent off their game, which worked as (Nash) did not capitalize when they had chances.

“We scored five in the seventh end, after being up 6-1. He only had eight rocks left, and we were up by 10.”

While Campbell’s team won the U18 men’s provincial title, Carman’s Shaela Hayward team won the Asham U18 women’s provincial curling title. Both teams have earned trips to nationals next month in Ottawa, as did runner-up Sugden.

During five days of play, Campbell also draws on his coach Sheldon Zacharias for strategies based on his observations from the sidelines.

This was especially helpful when Campbell’s team fought back to reach the final with a semi-final win over the Colin Desaulniers-skipped Kieran Callewaert team featuring Luc Cormier, Colin Quinn Lagace and Justin Arbez.

That semi-final victory created the momentum, according to Campbell, needed for a dominant final game performance which saw the Altona foursome put three three’s and a five on the scoreboard.

During five days of curling, Campbell went 6-1, while Sugden finished 5-1.

Curling for the past nine years, Campbell’s introduction to this sport came after he tried playing minor hockey. He also had his mom, an uncle and a cousin as curling role models.

“I made my choice between the two sports because I wasn’t as good playing hockey as I was curling,” he recalled. “Plus, you can curl until you are 80 or for the rest of your life.”

With a provincial title under his belt, this is only Campbell’s third year playing competitive juniors. He plays in the Westman Superleague and goes out for men’s night, too, which gives him a chance to watch adults in action.

“I watch a lot of curling on TV, and learn a lot from what I see,” he said. “For nationals, before I go, I will get out on the ice and throw plenty of rocks to make sure I’m good to go.”

He also played for Vincent Massey’s curling team, but when qualifying for provincials he usually had something else in his life which meant he never attended. Instead, he asked that the runner-up his team beat would go instead so they could gain curling experience on the provincial high school stage.

Does he have a favourite curler? It’s not anyone who has won multiple Briers or Olympic medals like Newfoundland’s Brad Gushue.

“I like Matt Dunstone out of Winnipeg,” he offers. “He’s such a calm guy out there on the ice … I like the way he calls the game. I was able to watch him play in Neepewa.”

Dunstone won his first Canadian junior curling championships in 2013 and then won bronze at the world championship. He won a second junior nationals in 2016, and earned another bronze at worlds.

Watching Dunstone play and continually have success, Campbell would not mind replicating this and one day representing the province he was born in on the national and world stages of curling.

Why did he choose to join the Altona Curling Club to hone his game versus stay closer to home?

The past successes of his coach helped, when he joined his son Logan on the foursome. His two daughters Mackenzie and Emily playing out of Altona have won provincial, national and world gold. They also joined up with iconic Manitoba skip Jennifer Jones and continued with more success, with Mackenzie stepping back from curling in 2023 to finish off her studies at the University of Manitoba.

“My coach’s daughters have so many banners up at that curling club. It would be sweet to hang up another banner with their father as our coach,” he said.

As provincial champions, the Hayward and Campbell team records at the national championship in Ottawa will be the records which count in the tally to determine whether Manitoba will have one or two entries at the nationals in 2025.

As the formula includes the provincial champion’s record across two years, this year’s record and the record from a year ago will be taken into account. This is why Manitoba is sending two U18 men’s teams to Ottawa.

“It’s going to be fun,” said Campbell of his first time taking a flight out of Manitoba and visiting the nation’s capital for the first time. “I’m going there trying to win, but I want to have fun and remember this experience as it’s my first time at nationals. I’ll build off that experience as I have three more years of juniors to play.”

Leading up to his trip east, Campbell will be honing his game skills by throwing plenty of rocks at the Altona Curling Club, plus if he can find some bonspiels to perfect shot-making and work on team strategies facing older competition.

“I’m not going to go out and tire myself out … I just want to be ready, and go to Ottawa and have some fun, and see if we can win a national title for Manitoba, and put another banner up at the Altona Curling Club.”

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