Westman Superleague of Curling returns
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The Taylor Jackson Financial Westman Superleague of Curling is once again underway.
Westman’s cream of the crop curling league kicks off action this evening at the Brandon Curling Club and will mark 49 years since the league was established in 1976.
Acting president and league member Cale Dunbar said he’s more than eager to throw the stones again.
Team Irwin’s Travis Brooks, Travis Gouldie, Travis Taylor and Steve Irwin pose with Shawn Taylor of Taylor Jackson Financial Services after receiving the trophy as Westman Super League of Curling Champions. (Brandon Sun files)
“We’re all looking forward to getting started,” said Dunbar, who’s played in the league for more than 20 seasons and has helped manage it for 10. “It’s always exciting when everybody comes in and things start falling into place.”
Dunbar’s squad, which includes Chris Campbell, Kyle Sambrook, and Shayne MacGranachan, took home the league title two seasons ago after defeating Team Alyssa Calvert — the league’s lone female club — in the final but failed to repeat after Steve Irwin’s squad won the championship last year. It’s a tall task considering the last time a team in the Superleague won back-to-back was when Terry McNamee did so more than 10 years ago.
Dunbar said that kind of parity is exactly what makes the league so compelling.
“As far as calibre in the province, there is no other league that compares,” he said. “There are lots of great teams in Manitoba, no doubt, but our depth is still very strong, and we show it consistently every week.
“Once someone gets a taste of playing, or once a team gets a taste of playing in this league at this calibre, where you have a really good game once a week, they’re kind of hooked.
Playing in a club is great, but this is just that next level where every single shot matters, and if you make a mistake, you pay for it.”
The league has had 12 teams since the outset but has still managed to stay as competitive as possible. In fact, the level of play is so high that six of the teams featured in Superleague — Dunbar, Irwin, Travis Gregory, Jeff Stewart, Kelly Marnoch, and Ed Barr — competed at the 2025 Viterra Championship provincial tournament in Portage la Prairie last year, while Team Calvert competed on the women’s provincial curling side in Pilot Mound.
“There were only 32 teams at the provincial championship in Manitoba last year, so to have five or six come out of our league shows us the calibre that we’re playing at, so it’s pretty impressive,” Dunbar said. “It’s just cool to have 12 really top-notch teams here in Brandon to play in a league where every game’s that tight. We’re all out there to win and we all have that competitive edge.”
Last year, the league welcomed two new teams in Andrew Kempthorne from Boissevaine and Sheldon Wettig from Brandon but has had no team movement this year. The only player addition to the Superleague is Carberry’s Derek Samagalski, who’s joined Team Wettig after leaving Reid Carruthers’ highly ranked curling squad after 10 seasons in hopes of competing in the Brier Playdowns in Nunavut next year.
As for Dunbar’s club, he believes they’re ready to get back to championship form.
“We’re as ready as we’re ever going to be to get out there and play and win those games,” he said. “Every shot makes a difference, and at the end of the year, you have to just hope you come out on the positive side of that coin flip more often than not, but we know what we’re capable of.”
And given how long Team Dunbar has been together, it’s a lot. The duo of Sambrook and Dunbar have played with one another for more than 15 years and Campbell and MacGranachan joined the tandem close to 10 years ago, so chemistry on and off the ice is the least of their worries.
“We know each other really well, and we’re friends off the ice as much as we are on the ice, and we just do it because we love it,” said Dunbar of himself and his teammates. “We just mentally are more prepared or mentally more at ease and can be more agile that way, and we are obviously out here to win the championship, but at the same time, it’s about just enjoying each other’s company.
Brandon’s Cale Dunbar will look to lock down the Taylor Jackson Financial Westman Superleague of Curling title for the second time in three years after coming up short last season. (Brandon Sun files)
“You need to have those relationships so it never gets too stressful on the ice, and every one of us is going to have a bad game, but it’s your buddies that are right there to pick you up. That’s invaluable in terms of the strength of a team, so having that experience makes that a lot easier.”
Team Dunbar will open its season tonight against Team Stewart.
The remaining Week 1 matchups are as follows:
Gregory vs. Kempthorne
Barr vs. Anderson
Irwin vs. Payette
Calvert vs. Bridges
Marnoch vs. Samagaski
» mdelucataronno@brandonsun.com