‘Very special’ Vegas worlds a fitting end
National men’s curling coach calls it a career
LAS VEGAS • It was Rick Lang’s last game as Canada’s national men’s coach as he sat beside team coach Jules Owchar and fifth man Tom Sallows for the gold- medal game at the world men’s curling championship Sunday in Las Vegas.
After two Olympic quadrennials in the job, Lang will step away to make room for mixed doubles national coach Jeff Stoughton to take over next year at the worlds in Lethbridge, Alta., and two years from now at the just-awarded 2020 championship set for Glasgow, Scotland.
“It was kind of sinking in to me all week, thinking, ‘I won’t be doing this again,’” Lang said before taking his seat.
“It’s been great to be here with Team Gushue because they are wonderful to work with. They’re so loved by Canadian fans, which is cool and there’s been so much support here from Canadian fans.
“They have excellent routines already, so I didn’t need to have any input on that. We had excellent conversations about what they’d been experiencing. I enjoyed those conversations and contributing here and there to what I’d been seeing.
“They have a lot of respect for the history of the game and obviously they are extremely well- behaved, so I never had to worry about misbehaving in Vegas.”
A world championship has been a very cool place to call it a career, he said.
“It’s been a pretty good way to wrap it up, working this event in Las Vegas, because it really has been very special,” he said.
L ang played in t hree worlds himself after winning Briers out of Thunder Bay, Ont., playing third for Bill Tetley in 1975 and Al Hackner in 1982 and 1985. The Hackner t eam won gold both years, in 1982 at Garmisch- Partenkirchen, Germany, and 1985 in Glasgow. The Tetley team won bronze in Perth, Scotland, in 1975.
He’s been national coach at worlds in Regina, Basel, Victoria, Beijing, Halifax, Basel again, and Edmonton as well as Olympics in Sochi and Pyeongchang.
The national coach provides international expertise, logistical support and continuity from one edition to the next. He’s there to work with the team coach, not take over his job. And finishing up working with Owchar, Kevin Martin’s legendary coach, these past two years as Gushue’s team coach was a treat, Lang said.
“I love Jules, actually,” he said. “I didn’t know Jules until last year. I didn’t begin as national coach until after the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver. I hadn’t worked with him before. I found him to be such a unique personality. What I love about him in that coaching bench is that he is just so laid back and relaxed. He never sweats a thing.
“He makes some interesting observations. He watches the way they’re acting toward each other, their body language and the technical stuff, the way that they’re throwing. He’ll say, ‘ Watch this.’ He’ll tell them what he saw and often it will be: ‘I like it when you do that.’ And when it’s the opposite, he’s very humble and respectful with the way he communicates with the team.
“We had some trials and tribulations here, but he was just keeping everything in perspective for everybody. It was so important to have that kind of personality around.
“I enjoyed every time we sat on the bench together these last two years. He’s priceless.”
Wendorf also retiring: Most curling fans probably haven’t heard of Keith Wendorf, the World Curling Federation director of competitions, who is also retiring.
Raised in Saskatchewan, Wendorf moved to Germany and began his role with the WFC in 2002.
“The work Keith has done over the last two years has been invaluable as our sport has grown in the last two decades,” WFC president Kate Caithness said. “With his dedication and knowledge, Keith has helped build a first-class schedule of competitions and development programs and put together a great team of competition and development officers ready to carry on.”