Most famous player at Alberta playdowns is in the stands
Team Canada third Kennedy can relax, Team Koe earned Brier berth with win in ’16
It was one of those ‘ What’s wrong with this picture?’ moments.
Marc Kennedy and his wife Nicole sat in the stands here Friday morning as paying spectators.
Twelve times Kennedy has played in the Alberta Boston Pizza Cup. Seven times he has won and gone on to play in the Brier.
“It’s different. It’s just weird to sit here and not be playing in this for the first time,” said the Olympic gold medal winner, three-time Brier champion and two-time world champion from St. Albert.
As defending Brier champion, skip Kevin Koe, third Kennedy, second Brent Laing and lead Ben Hebert have already qualified for the St. John’s, N.L. Brier as Team Canada.
“To be sitting here and watching is only part of it. Not to be playing in February is the other part of it,” Kennedy said.
Kennedy was here to watch his brother Glen throw last rock for Jamie King’s Edmonton team.
“I’m here to support my brother but it’s been interesting to experience this event from this perspective. And it’s nice not to have to butt heads with all these guys.
“It’s been really competitive. I think just about everybody came here thinking they could win. I don’t think it’s been like that in like forever — 20 years. I think everyone has raised their game a little bit.
They all have had an opportunity. There have been some really great games and it’s been really interesting to see how things have been playing out,” said Kennedy, who brought his kids to watch their uncle Thursday as well.
With nobody other than Kevin Martin, Kevin Koe and Randy Ferbey to have skipped teams to provincial championships since 1999 and Kennedy having played for both Martin and Koe’s best teams, he has a special perspective.
He’s into it.
“Whoever wins, it’s going to be their first Brier. It’s pretty exciting,” he said.
As much as he’s looking forward to wearing the red maple leaf at the Brier, Kennedy knows there’s going to be double takes every time he looks at the winning team from here on the ice in St. John’s wearing Alberta blue with that distinctive provincial crest on the back.
“I looked at the Brier sched- ule when it first came out. I started telling Ben Hebert who we were playing and when and he stopped me. I had the whole thing mapped out. Benny said ‘ We’re not Alberta, we’re Canada.’ I’d been looking at the Alberta schedule.”
There’s a bigger picture here when it comes to Kennedy and the defending world champion team. This year’s Ford World Men’s Curling Championship is scheduled April 1-9 in Edmonton.
“That would be amazing to play at home,” said the 35-yearold who once quarterbacked the Edmonton Huskies junior football team.
“I had the opportunity twice, first at the Olympic Trials in 2009,” he said of the event he won with Martin to represent Canada at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games where they won the gold.
“And we made it to the Edmonton 2013 Brier. Edmonton has the best curling fan base in the world. That would be a dream come true to represent Canada in our home province, especially in the last event in the Northlands Coliseum. “It would just make for such a great story.
“But it’s going to be hard. The Brier is no picnic. And Brad Gushue on his home turf this time is going to be tough to beat. We’re going to practice hard the rest of this month and hopefully play as well as we did last year.”
The Koe team was the first to qualify for the Roar of The Rings Olympic Trails in December in Ottawa.
And they were already in the Brier as Team Canada. The result has been a less than an inspired season. Or, at least, that was the case until they won $75,000 last weekend at the TSN Skins Game in Banff.
“We just hadn’t, this year, all four of us, played really well at the same time.
“Add that to having that big target on our back because we had such a great season last year, it’s resulted in a more difficult year. The TSN Skins Game was the first time all season all four of us have all played well at the same time.”
That was their last chance to
get it together before the Brier. There are no events for the Koe team to curl between now and the March 4-12 Brier.
“We’re going to have a couple training camps,” he said of two-aday sessions.
“It’s a challenge.”