Wettig off to fourth Brier appearance with Nunavut

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This article was published 14/01/2025 (247 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Sheldon Wettig is off to his fourth Brier appearance after qualifying to represent Nunavut at the men’s national curling championship this past weekend.

He and his team of skip Shane Latimer, second Justin McDonell and lead Peter Van Strien won a best-of-five playdown in three straight games to earn the chance to represent the territory, but it nearly never happened.

Wettig arrived in Iqaluit the day of his first game with just a few hours to spare after travel delays in Ottawa meant an extra, unplanned night in the nation’s capital.

It also tested his adaptability as his luggage, including his curling gear, didn’t arrive until the start of his last game.

“It definitely made for a more stressful start. I had to start the playdowns with a makeshift throwing broom because I normally play with a specialized corn broom. So that threw my delivery into a loop a little bit, but we made it work,” Wettig said via phone from Iqaluit following his team’s win.

Born in Iqaluit and raised in Yellowknife, Wettig’s team had to win to earn the wins over former Nunavut curling champion Peter Mackey.

Wettig and Team Latimer took care of business, winning by scores of 9-3, 8-3, and 8-2 to advance to the national championship.

“We established control early in the games and we tried to keep them chasing as much as possible and using some things that we knew were going to be strengths of ours like sweeping. We were able to use that to our advantage, but they had us in some spots where we were in trouble but our skip came through pretty big for us,” said Wettig.

The opportunity to return to the national stage isn’t lost on Wettig, as the reward for playing well as a team means they now will move on to brighter lights and a national audience.

“Any time you put so much time into something that you get to go to the big stage you never take that for granted,” Wettig added.

This year will mark Wettig’s fourth Brier appearance, first qualifying in 2020 before taking a forced two-year break due to COVID when he wasn’t able to travel to Iqualit to participate in playdowns.

The team made history in 2023 in London, Ont. notching the Nunavut Curling Association’s first win in a national event.

Wettig represented Nunavut at last year’s Brier in Regina, winning another game, but the Crocus Plains High School teacher and president of the Brandon Curling Club will now ramp up his preparations and focus with the aim of being his best once this year’s championship begins.

Much like last year, he aims to throw as many rocks as possible during his lunch breaks to prepare against the best men’s curling teams in the country, but on his own time.

It’s a unique challenge compared to other provincial winners who play together often, while Team Nunavut now needs to prepare on their own and won’t have much time to play together before the national event.

“We know what to expect when we get there, so we know what we’ll need to do if we want to put on a good showing. You’re playing against the best of the best, so you can’t go in thinking you’re going to light everything up, because there are great teams going in with the same competitive mindset,” Wettig added.

“Some of the teams we’ll be playing against are teams that play every week together, which means we just need to be that much more prepared individually.”

This year’s Brier runs Feb. 28 to March 9 in Kelowna, B.C.

» mpackwood@brandonsun.com