Calvert’s winning pedigree tied to Carberry

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This article was published 25/11/2016 (3418 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A wide-eyed Braden Calvert was 13 years old when he first stepped into the hack at Brandon’s Westman Place.

The crowd was eagerly awaiting the 2008 Safeway Championship — now Viterra Championship — semifinal showdown between Reston-born Kerry Burtnyk and hometown favourite Mike McEwen. But before the main attraction of the provincial men’s curling championship hit the ice, the young Carberry product took centre stage.

Calvert had competed in a draw to the button contest and was among a handful of junior Westman curlers who received a chance to throw the opening draw at provincials.

“That’s probably the first time I threw a rock in that Brandon arena,” Calvert said. “It’s kind of neat to look back at.”

He doesn’t think his throw reached the rings, something he jokes about, but over the last eight years his drawing has greatly improved.

Calvert won consecutive provincial and national junior men’s curling titles in 2014 and 2015, and capped the latter year by claiming the world championship with a 6-3 victory over defending champion Yannick Schwaller of Switzerland.

But Calvert, who is now 21 years old and will be vying for a third junior provincial crown in January, wouldn’t have compiled the curling accomplishments he has without support his hometown club, which is where he learned to curl.

“I followed my parents around the rink when I was young and I was always eager to get on the curling ice,” Calvert said. “I was probably eight years old when I started curling and obviously fell in love with it, and if you know anything about the Carberry Curling Club, you know that they are big supporters of junior curling and they are always trying to get the youth out and about.

“The club is always the first one to support a junior team that is going to provincials or even zones.”

“They are always pushing for our junior league to get more people out and that’s a lot of credit to my dad Grant, Robby Van Kommer, Ian Scott and Todd Witherspoon,” said Calvert. “There’s such a core foundation in Carberry that cares a lot about their own men’s club and the junior club and it’s obviously produced a lot of elite curlers. You look at the Waterhouse brothers, the Irwins, the Marnochs and the Witherspoons.

“It’s not just one family. They are supporting everyone and there’s a lot of growth there so it’s really good.”

As he got older, Calvert’s interest in the sport grew.

He remembers watching Winnipeg’s Jeff Stoughton play on TV and wanting to follow in the footsteps of the two-time men’s world champion.

“I always wanted to play on TV one day so that was kind of a big motivator,” Calvert added. “It was definitely at a young age that I wanted to be successful in curling.”

Steve Irwin was a little unlike Calvert but growing up in Carberry he too recalled the moment when he opted to pursue a high level of curling.

“The first time I really remember curling was we always had like a Grade 4, 5 or 6 bonspiel and it was part of school,” said the 34-year-old Irwin, who now lives in Brandon. “I was sure I had gone out with my dad a bit but that’s when I really kind of picked it up and then I started asking my dad to take me out more and learned from there and fell in love right away.

“I actually used to bowl … but had to choose between the two in Grade 6 or 7 because they were on at the same time.”

Irwin still remembers the four-pin loss he had to Trevor Ray around that time that may have influenced his decision to pursue curling over bowling.

Irwin thinks back to when his dad Brent went to men’s provincials in 1991 and again in 1994 and 1995, the last of which was played in Winnipeg.

“I watched him in the old Winnipeg Arena in ’95 and I was really into it then and it really took off after that, just really wanting to be there watching him play,” Irwin added.

It was only a few years later that Irwin and his unheralded team, which included fellow Carberry product Kelly Marnoch, reached the final of the 1998 Manitoba Winter Games in Gimli. They lost to a Winnipeg-based foursome but knowing they could compete against the top teams in the province gave them a boost.

That, and playing regular contests against Westman’s top junior teams in what is now known as the UCT No. 448 Junior Super League at the Brandon club, helped Irwin become a solid curler. He has enjoyed several trips to men’s provincials and a silver medal at the 2012 Dominion (now Travelers) national curling club championship after capturing his second of three Manitoba titles.

“The junior super league in Brandon was huge,” he said. “We came in every Sunday and played a couple of games and played in that for seven or eight years.

“It was good because we started when we were probably 13 or 14 playing against the older guys, like Mike McEwen and Geordie Hargreaves.”

Theresa Payette’s kids Kaitlyn and Brayden both play in the super league, and she serves as an executive member. Payette said the league is not quite as competitive as it was three or four years ago but the appeal of competing in the league still exists.

“As far as the interest of the kids that are there, it’s still up there,” Payette said. “We have a lot of younger people just coming in who are serious or maybe not even sure if they are really into curling but want to just give it a try.”

“It definitely gives an opportunity for those who have not had a lot of curling experience, the opportunity to see what it is like to curl in more of a competitive type of league.”

The league played a crucial role in Irwin’s curling development but he still goes back to the swarm of curling support in Carberry that has been passed down to kids over the years.

The basics of the game are taught to youngsters at the Carberry Club after school on Thursday afternoons, something Van Kommer, a past CurlManitoba president and local product, explained.

“They come out and whether it’s the parents helping them or volunteers, they learn the basics of the game,” Van Kommer said. “They play for fun and you just try to keep as many of the young people curling as you can. Through the years it’s worked out pretty well for us. Success kind of breeds success and breeds interest.

“With the things some of the young fellows have done through the last five to 10 years, everybody’s excited about curling in town.”

Dahlia Snaith has been curling in Carberry for the last three years. She took up the sport over Christmas holidays in Brookdale three years ago and enjoys the chance to be on the ice after school on Thursdays.

“I think it’s a lot of fun,” the 11-year-old said.

Irwin has taken his two young kids — Ethan, 6, and Jadyn, 8 — onto the ice from time to time and envisions an uptick of that as they grow older. He also agreed with Van Kommer.

“It seems like the generations that keep coming get better and better,” Irwin said. “I only played in three junior provincials but then you see the younger guys … Joey Witherspoon he went and won three high school titles and made it to seven or eight juniors, won a junior title (2010 with Alex Forrest of Winnipeg). Then you go down the line with Trevor Calvert and then Trevor’s younger brother Braden comes up and is winning everything now, too.”

And despite all his success Braden Calvert, still finds times to give back to the next generation of curlers, trying to keep curling at the grassroots level in Westman.

“My junior team last year came to Carberry and did a junior camp,” he said. “We got 30 or so kids out and helped them for two days so that was kind of rewarding for us to see the amount of kids that wanted to come out and learn the game of curling from us.

“We’re just trying to grow the game because these days you can’t have enough curlers out there with the clubs that have shut down.”

And his advice to young curlers is that your dreams are always attainable.

“Keep going with it and the sky is definitely the limit with curling. If you work hard enough at it I think it can be a really rewarding game and like myself I found out that watching Jeff Stoughton on TV and wanting to be there and in the spotlight throwing that last draw or whatever it may be isn’t as far as you might think, so just work hard at it. Have a lot of fun, that’s the main thing I’ve got from it, play with guys that you really enjoy playing with and kind of the rest just takes care of itself.”

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