PACKING THE HOUSE: Curlers primed for 100th Viterra Championship

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This article was published 05/02/2025 (275 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Whether it’s the first, 10th, or 100th trip to the Manitoba men’s provincial curling championship, the heightened anticipation does little to bring calm before the storm.

Teams have put the final touches and preparations in place for what ends up being one of the most fun, yet challenging weeks of the year as things get underway at Stride Place in Portage la Prairie this morning.

This year’s Viterra Championship marks the 100th anniversary of the men’s provincial championship, which predates the Brier, and due to the format, it mostly boils down to how teams start, perhaps even more so than finish.

A couple of losses early, and it’s over after the first or second day.

If that’s not enough pressure, Manitoba legends like 1957 provincial champion Don Duguid, provincial, national and world champion Kerry Burtnyk and 11-time Manitoba champ Jeff Stoughton plan to be on hand throughout the week, with Duguid set to hold the broom for the ceremonial first rock in tonight’s opening ceremonies.

With the chance to play on arena ice, in a beautiful venue like Stride Place, and in front of some of the legends of the game, it doesn’t get much better than that, according to Brandon’s Cale Dunbar.

“It will be extra special this year,” said Dunbar following one of his team’s final practice sessions at the Brandon Curling Club. “Guys like Burtnyk who have achieved so much … and to think that they could probably still step out there and still compete with us.”

Dunbar and his team of Chris Campbell, Kyle Sambrook, and Shayne MacGranachan have been before and considering the stacked field of competition, know the challenge that lies ahead.

“This is what we play for every year. Our goal is to play Friday and ultimately it would be nice to qualify for Saturday, but we just want to play our game. This is provincials number nine or 10 for me so it’s really just a matter of finding the weights and stick to the basics like we do every week.”

Being the 100th anniversary of the Manitoba men’s championship, the week of festivities opened with a Celebration of Champions last night, which served as the event’s opening banquet but also in which past champions were invited back to be recognized.

The 32-team field means plenty of competition. With regional qualifiers, the Canadian Team Ranking System (CTRS) and berth bonspiels all providing an avenue for teams to qualify means it’s a wide-open field, with 17 teams from 13 different rural clubs and 15 teams from eight Winnipeg clubs.

Westman clubs to be represented include Dunbar and Steve Irwin out of the Brandon Curling Club, Greg Todoruk of Dauphin, Sean Boyle of Neepawa, Travis Gregory of Hamiota, Jace Freeman of Virden, Jeff Stewart of Gladstone, and Kelly Marnoch and Ed Barr of Carberry.

Top seed Reid Carruthers out of the Granite Club technically didn’t qualify as reigning champs, as only two members of last year’s team (Carruthers and Connor Njegovan) are back.

Carruthers instead added Catlin Schneider and Kyle Doering before qualifying as the top-ranked CTRS team in Manitoba. They only got stronger with former champ BJ Neufeld added to the fold.

Last year’s finalist Braden Calvert enters as the third seed. The Carberry product has had plenty of success at the junior level and has been making noise in the men’s ranks.

Curling out of the Fort Rouge Curling Club, Calvert and co. enter as the No. 11 CTRS ranked team, and qualified due to having won five Manitoba Curling Tour events. He and team of Corey Chambers, Kyle Kurz and Brendan Bilawka will be looking to take another step this season.

For some it’s a matter of riding momentum into today.

Irwin is looking to take another step with the hope of advancing further into the week of competition than previous years. Coming off a big win in the Taylor Jackson Financial Westman Superleague of Curling this past weekend should help.

“It’s great momentum going in, but to play two games this close is great,” said Irwin.

“To play Wednesday morning and to have some momentum and knowing we can make some shots is huge. Instead of going in with a loss, this is really good for us.”

Irwin and team of Daley Peters, Travis Taylor, and Travis Brooks will face a familiar opponent to get things started at 8:15 this morning against Gregory, who they beat earlier this season in the Westman Superleague.

“We’ve played them a few times so there’s a ton of familiarity there. We know what we’re in for. There’s probably going to be a ton of rocks in play because that’s how they like to play. So yeah, hopefully, just get our feet under us and get a win in that first game then just go game by game,” said Irwin.

The opportunity to play in the provincial championship is an opportunity Irwin and team always relish.

“Love the arena ice so much. It’s the best in the world. Always look forward to it every year … With the fans, the arena ice, the whole experience is the best. It’s our Brier basically, and hopefully if we get rolling I’d like to think we have a shot.”

Jeff Stewart is looking to turn the tables from last weekend.

After a perfect 11-0 record in league play in the Superleague of Curling, Stewart and his team dropped the hard-fought final to Irwin.

Stewart and his team of Eric Zamrykut, Geoff Trimble and Alan Christison didn’t spend any more time than necessary reflecting on last weekend’s result, but rather quickly refocused on the task at hand.

“Don’t take too much from any game. We had a couple picks that cost us and that was the end of it,” said Stewart.

“Getting to play on the arena ice again is always fun, so mostly just hoping to get onto it and have another good run again. Everyone’s playing really good right now, so we just hope to keep that going.”

Things get underway at 8:15 a.m. today, with draw times to follow at 12:15 p.m., 4 p.m. and 8:15 p.m.

The playoff round gets underway at the 7:45 p.m. draw on Friday, carrying on to Saturday.

For the complete bracket, visit CurlManitoba.org/viterra-championship.

Tickets are still available, also through the Curl Manitoba website.

Feature games will be shown live on the Curl Manitoba YouTube page.

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Curl Manitoba announced Monday that the RME Women of the Rings is coming back to Westman for 2026.

The Riverdale Community Centre in Rivers will host next year’s edition of the women’s provincial championship.

Rivers hosted the 2020 championship when it was still called the Scotties, and was one of the first marquee events in the facility, which opened in 2011.