‘Dream Team’ poised for debut
EDMONTON — Young. Armed. And dangerous.
Skipped by Brock Virtue, Saskatchewan comes into the Tim Hortons Brier loaded with so many credentials, people started calling them “The Dream Team.”
Third Braeden Moskowy, 22, a two-time Saskatchewan men’s junior curling champion, is the 2011 Canadian junior champion.
Lead DJ Kidby, 25, a threetime Saskatchewan junior men’s champion, was on the 2005 world junior championship team.
Second Chris Schille, 30, played in two Briers with Newfoundland-Labrador’s Brad Gushue — one of them a runner-up finish in 2007.
Virtue, 26, albeit a Brier rookie, is also a world junior champion (2007).
Last year, playing out of his hometown of Lethbridge, Virtue skipped a rink which knocked off Kevin Martin twice and finished second to Kevin Koe in the Alberta men’s championship.
But the very next day, Virtue announced he had a new team and would be playing out of Regina.
“I moved there to play with this team,” Virtue said. “I grew up curling against them (Moskowy, Kidby and Schille) my whole life.
“I really wanted to make it work with those three players.”
Moskowy and Kidby are from Saskatchewan; Schille is from Red Deer.
Despite their accolades, the Virtue rink failed to catch fire on the World Curling Tour. They never made a single playoff round.
“When we first put the team together, it looked really good on paper, but it was a very difficult tournament season; we didn’t win a dime,” said Virtue. “Our preparation and our focus wasn’t as good as it could have been. If you aren’t firing on all cylinders, you aren’t going to be successful. Sometimes, it takes time to be cohesive as a team.
“All of our focus has been on the Brier. We’ve put in a ton of effort.”
They could be peaking at the right time. Virtue said the playdowns were the best they have curled this season and that, in particular, the final “was the best game our team has ever had together.”
Along the way, Virtue’s rink also showed resiliency.
“The strengths of our team are shotmaking and the ability to bounce back. We were down by three early in the provincial semifinal. It came down to the final end, but we prevailed.”