Schneider switch pays off
ASSINIBOIA — Jamie and Rick Schneider are perfectly content with the results of their role-switching at the Sasktel Saskatchewan Tankard.
The brothers switched positions before the cash curling season, with Jamie throwing third stones and calling the game. Rick moved from third to throwing the final two rocks. The switch, which was brought on by Jamie undergoing surgery on his left knee during the summer, paid off with a berth in the Saskatchewan men’s curling championship for the Tartan team.
“I’ve never played in a Tankard and not thrown the last rock before,” Jamie Schneider said Thursday at the Assiniboia Curling Club. “I had knee surgery in June and I only played in two bonspiels. Actually, I started the season at lead and I’m moving up in positions but I haven’t been able to get back to skip. It’s working out.”
It has worked out through the opening two days of the Tankard. The Schneider team, with Rick throwing the final two stones, improved to 2-0 with a 9-8 victory over Tankard favourite Steve Laycock in Thursday’s A- event semifinal. Schneider earned the win over the defending Saskatchewan champion after scoring two in the 10th end without having to throw his final rock.
“With the way the game is being played today, it’s whatever combination works best,” Jamie said. “We talked about it one night at the Tartan. We felt things were going well and we were making shots. We just decided to stick with it.”
Jamie Schneider has skipped for as long he can remember. Jamie was the skip on the 1983 Saskatchewan junior and Canadian junior championship teams. He followed up that performance with a second provincial junior title in 1984.
In 1990, he skipped his allbrother team of Rick, Larry and Mike to the 1990 Saskatchewan men’s championship. He would likely still be filling the role of skip if the pain in his damaged knee hadn’t forced him to undergo surgery to repair a torn meniscus.
“There were some challenges over the last five years,” Jamie Schneider said. “I couldn’t slide very well and then I made the decision to go in June. They said in time it would be 100 per cent, but not it’s quite there yet. I wear a brace and it’s OK.”
Rick Schneider has experience as the final-rock thrower. He skipped for a number of years while Jamie reduced his competitive schedule to concentrate on being with his active family.
“We’ve played together long enough that we both know how to skip,” said Rick Schneider, who won Saskatchewan junior men’s championships in 1977 and 1978 as a skip. “I played third for a long time after juniors, so it’s not hard coming back to throwing the last rock. It’s different, but not hard.”
It seems different watching a Schneider team with Jamie holding the broom on the final two shots instead of driving out of the hack.
“He’s throwing better now than before,” Rick said. “He has the odd issue with the soft shot. He seems to be getting it done.”
The transition may be helped by the dynamics of the team. The front end features the brother combination of Curt and Shannon England at second and lead, respectively. The men are mature enough that the sibling rivalries are long be- hind them.
“We just all get along and we’re confident in whatever they decide,” Curt England said. “We’re getting old enough that we’re probably more relaxed. There isn’t any ego anymore. It’s whatever is good for the team.”
It has been good for the team. Schneider pre-qualified for the Tankard after the cash season and avoided the extra grind of the playdowns. He was to play Saskatoon’s Bruce Korte in last night’s A-event semifinal.
“We have a good team atmosphere,” Jamie Schneider said. “We have the right atti- tude because we enjoy playing. We don’t put a ton of pressure on ourselves, but we’re wily enough to make enough shots to hang in there.”
Korte advanced to today’s A-event final at noon against Eston’s Carl deconickSmith. deconinck-smith beat the Callie’s Scott Bitz 9-6 in the other A-event semifinal.
The winner of today’s Aevent final qualfies for Saturday’s Page Playoffs. The semifinal is Sunday at 9:30 a.m., followed by the final at 2 p.m.