Curling champs hope win sweeps up support in Kelowna

• Growing the sport with youth
• Family ties at the tournament for Richard
• Enjoying every opportunity to compete

The Central Okanagan was well represented at the B.C. Men’s Curling Championships and Scotties B.C. Women’s Curling Championship.

Two Kelowna-based teams notched victories in Kamloops this weekend and one hopes the wins help to spur growth among Kelowna's youth for the game of curling.

Jeff Richard's rink, Team Richard, edged a victory over Paul Cseke from the Victoria Curling Club to take the top spot at the provincial men's event.

Team Richard had to battle it out in extra ends for an 11-8 victory, finishing the tournament with a 6-2 record.

“We played pretty well. The only team we lost to all week was the team we played in the final,” said Richard. “We relied on experience and patience and took one shot at a time and didn’t think about the end result in winning and I think that paid off for us in the final game.”

It was a bit of a family affair atop the podium at both the men’s and women’s event.

Richard’s sister, Jeanna Schrader, and father, Gerry Richard, are part of Team Arsenault, who won the 2022 Scotties B.C. Women’s Curling Championship.

“It was a good day on Sunday for the family,” he said. “To have Jeanna and my dad win and then we followed a few hours later to win, ours was pretty special.”

Rich said growing the sport amongst the youth is an important element of building strong teams in the province.

“Having the kids watching the Scotties and Brier and showing the screen say Kelowna Curling Club, and if it inspires a couple of kids to try it and get hooked on the sport, you never know, they could be the next team to go to the Scotties or Brier in the next 15 to 20 years,” he said. “It’s super important clubs grow their grassroot programs to keep building and get potentially championship teams.”

Team Richard features Brent Pierce, a gold medalist at the World Curling Championships and who will make his fourth Brier appearance; Jared Kolomaya, who moved from Manitoba and will make his first appearance in the national championship; and Nicholas Meister, a Canadian Junior Curling Champion in 2017.

For Richard, this will be his third trip to the Brier, but he isn’t taking moments like these for granted.

“It’s a dream come true and when you have teams in B.C. like Jim Cotter and Tyler Tardi coming up through the ranks, and even Paul Cseke, you just never know how many of these opportunities you’re going to get,” he said. “There’s great players in B.C. who never made the Brier and we’re fortunate enough to go a couple times. Every Brier is special because you just don’t know how often this opportunity comes.”

Team Richard will have more than a month to prepare for the Tim Hortons Brier, which will be held in Lethbridge, Alta., from March 4 to 13.