SENIOR CHAMP HAS THE PASSION
Cochrane returns to the Brier after 17 years away
KINGSTON, ONT. When Bryan Cochrane was just four years old, in the early 1960s, doctors stuck large crooked scissors down his throat to cut growths off his vocal cords.
He went through that several times between the ages of four and six and in October he had his 41st surgery to remove laryngeal papilloma from his throat.
When you’ve dealt with something like that most of your life, the challenges of playing a sport, even with limited ability to communicate, seem considerably less significant.
“As it turned out, I was pretty fortunate to have survived the issue as a kid,” said Cochrane, who is now 62 and is skipping Team Prince Edward Island at the Tim Hortons Brier.
“Since I was 27, I’ve had two or three surgeries a year. It’s a growth on your vocal cords and your vocal cords just can’t vibrate so I go in once a year now and get them burned off.”
Even with all of the medical procedures, Cochrane has far too quiet of a voice to communicate with his teammates during curling games.
Almost 30 years ago now, he came up with a solution.
He uses a whistle — approved by Curling Canada — as well as hand, arm and broom signals to give instructions to his sweepers.
“If I blow the whistle, do what you’re not doing,” Cochrane said. “If you’re sweeping, stop, if you’re not, start.
“It’s not easy out there when the guys can’t hear me. If my broom’s up in the air, it means sweep, both arms means stop and I’ve got some other signals. I’ve got four or five hand signals that the guys have to look up to see. They have to be participating in the issue, but my guys are great.”
Cochrane, who has lived all his life in Russell, Ont., has carved out a pretty solid curling career despite his disability.
He first made the Brier in 2003, at age 45, and went 5-6 in Halifax, while representing Ontario.
He has played in Ontario finals since then and has been close but could never get back to the big dance.
For the last few years, he and teammates Ian Macaulay and Morgan Currie have been focusing on senior curling, winning Canadian championships in 2016, 2018 and 2019 and claiming the gold medal at the world championship last spring.
“Winning the world seniors in Norway last year was special,” Cochrane said. “I was thinking of stepping back from curling after that.”
But when his team returned to Canada, Macaulay and Currie approached Cochrane with an intriguing idea.
Curling Canada had just instituted a birthright rule, meaning if you were born in a province or territory, you can play in provincial championships there even if you live outside the borders.
Macaulay and Currie were both born on the Island and they wanted to take advantage of the new rule. So they recruited Charlottetown’s Mark O’rourke to play lead and asked Cochrane if he wanted to be the import and skip.
“When these guys asked me if I wanted to go out to P.E.I., I said ‘You’re only young once,’” Cochrane laughed.
“I said, ‘Go to the Brier? Let’s try it.’ So here we are.”
Here they are, a team with an average age of 57.25 years, competing against some of the best men’s teams in the world in 2020. World No. 1 Brad Jacobs is here, as are No. 2 John Epping, four-time Canadian champ Kevin Koe, and two-time Brier winner Brad Gushue.
Cochrane and his teammates had a 1-1 record heading into Sunday night’s draw, having beaten Nunavut (Jake Higgs) and having lost to Northern Ontario (Jacobs).
They don’t likely have much chance of making it to the playoffs but they can certainly play the game and any wins they get are basically a bonus. The real prize is being here again, for Cochrane, after 17 years away.
“The times I spent in Ontario, at the provincials, it was a tough struggle,” he said. “You always want to play better and you go home after an event and think, ‘Should I play this game again?’
“But we love this game. The passion for the game is always there and, even at my age, I still love the game and I’m so happy to be here.”