Leaked changes disappoint Martin
EDMONTON — Kevin Martin was disappointed to hear about a report saying Marc Kennedy and Ben Hebert were going to join Canadian men’s curling champion Kevin Koe’s team next season.
It’s not that Martin was surprised to learn his longtime front end, which has been with him since the 2006-07 season, was leaving his rink. The 47-year-old 2010 Olympic gold medallist has already declared he won’t be trying to qualify for the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Games, and curling teams are formed these days with the intention of staying together for four-year cycles.
“It’s unfortunate,” Martin said about the Sportsnet report. “I know there’s been lots of talk between Kevin Koe and Ben and Marc. I mentioned to Ben and Marc, ‘Guys, why don’t you leave this until after the Players’ (Championship)? Or at least after the worlds?’
“You don’t want anything negatively affecting Kevin Koe’s team, because you want them guys to win. We want Team Canada to do well at the men’s worlds. It’s not the best timing to have all this happen, but I guess it did.”
Koe’s current team of Saskatchewan’s Pat Simmons and his Edmonton-based front end of Carter Rycroft and Nolan Thiessen will represent Canada in the world championship at Beijing from March 29-April 6. Rycroft has already announced that he’s taking next season off, with his wife expecting another child.
Neither Koe nor Kennedy were available for comment. “We’re not making any comments on that,” Thiessen said about the report of Koe’s new crew. “Our total concentration at the moment is on China. We’re leaving in the next couple of days and, out of the (best) interest of everybody, we’re just going to make comments on that and issue a release when we get home.
“Everybody is on board with the biggest deal at the moment is winning a world championship. That’s the only thing that matters. We’ll figure out next year when it comes.”
Glenn Howard second Brent Laing is apparently also joining Koe’s rink, which prompted Martin to guess that Kennedy, who has been a career second, would step up to the third position.
“That’s a pretty darn good team,” said Martin.
“Everybody in the sport knew there’d be lots of changes after this year, and they’re happening, and there’s a whole lot more than what you heard today,” Martin pointed out.
“In a perfect world, all this stuff gets ironed out in May.
“It’s just not worth screwing up a whole bunch of events. This is all about Kevin and his chance to win (at the world championship) and taking away from Jacobs and Jones at the Players.”
Martin wants to see the end-of-the-season Grand Slam for both men’s and women’s teams April 15-20 at Summerside, P.E.I., be a celebration of the Olympic gold medallist teams skipped by Brad Jacobs and Jennifer Jones and, hopefully, Rachel Homan as the women’s world champion and Koe as the men’s world champ.
He said it shouldn’t be a time to discuss the futures of aging veterans such as Howard, Martin and Jeff Stoughton or Koe’s new team.
For that reason, Martin will not announce his future curling plans until early May.
“We’re just celebrating all the winning that’s going on,” he said.