Significant discipline from World Curling Tour unlikely after Olympian’s team kicked out of event for being drunk and disorderly ... Lawes and Morris a mixed-doubles masterpiece
The World Curling Tour is close to completing an investigation after an Olympic gold medallist and the brother of another Olympian were kicked out of an event in Red Deer, Alta., for being drunk and unruly.
Ryan Fry, who won gold as third for Brad Jacobs at the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, and Jamie Koe, whose brother Kevin represented Canada at the 2018 Olympics in South Korea, were part of the team that was turfed from the Red Deer Curling Classic after showing up drunk for a Saturday afternoon game.
Koe was unable to even play in the game because of his condition while Fry and other team members Chris Schille, who is from Red Deer, and D.J.
Kidby carried on and were admonished by organizers for being “extremely drunk, breaking brooms, damaging equipment in the locker room and swearing.”
Gerry Guerts, the head of operations for the WCT, said immediate discipline is unlikely for the offending players, but also said the tour is looking at developing a code of conduct policy in wake of the incident.
“That’s not something you see happen very often at all,” Geurts said Tuesday.
“But right now we don’t specifically have a code of conduct for the World Curling Tour and it’s something we need to explore just to have a policy in place just so that discipline can be metered out when necessary.
“We’re getting close to the end of the investigation here. I think some things have been blown out of proportion. There’s a few things that need to be discussed, but for the most part (Fry) has been very apologetic. It was to a degree where he just had way too much to drink and it got out of hand.”
Fry, a 40-year-old who is originally from Winnipeg but now lives in Calgary and regularly plays for the Sault Ste. Marie, Ont.-based Jacobs team, is obviously the biggest name in the Jamie Koe foursome, having been a Brier winner, world silver medallist and Olympic champion, and he has seemingly taken responsibility for his own actions in this case. He reportedly broke three brooms during the game, causing fans at the Red Deer Curling Centre to complain and the manager of the facility to post a sign on the door of the club Sunday saying that the Koe foursome had been disqualified.
“My actions were truly disrespectful and embarrassing,” Fry said in a statement. “The committee was right to disqualify us from play. I allowed myself to lose control. I offended people with my actions and I wish nothing more than to apologize to everyone individually. I will be taking proper steps to ensure this problem can never happen again. I will continue to strive to become a better version of myself while contributing positively to the sport and curling community that I love so much.”
Fry’s regular skip, Jacobs, was not impressed. He issued a statement of his own a day after news of the incident came to light.
“When I heard about the situation, I called the Red Deer Curling Club and spoke with the manager,” Jacobs said. “We needed to hear the entire story and make sure we knew exactly what happened. We do not in any way support the behaviour that was displayed on and off the ice. It is absolutely unacceptable. This has been shared with Ryan and we are handling it internally as a team.”
While Fry is a member of Curling Canada’s National Team program with the Jacobs team, this was not a Curling Canada event and the Jamie Koe foursome is not part of the Canadian Team Ranking System, which is used in Olympic qualifying.
That means there will be no consequences with regard to Curling Canada. Should there be any supplemental discipline, which sounds unlikely, it would only apply to World Curling Tour and possibly Grand Slam of Curling events.
Though Geurts said he received a fair number of emails from fans concerned about the players’ behaviour, he doesn’t expect the Jacobs team, currently ranked fourth in the world, to be affected for the upcoming Grand Slam National in Newfoundland Dec. 11-16. The Jacobs team has also qualified for Curling Canada’s Canada Cup in Weyburn, Sask., Dec. 5-9.
“I’m not expecting any real significant discipline at this point based on what I’ve heard from other players and the club,” Geurts said.
“I’ve talked to the teams that were directly affected by these things and some of the stories out there are true and some of them are not.”
MIXED MASTERS
Kaitlyn Lawes and John Morris don’t actually curl together very often but when they do they sure know how to be successful.
The 2018 Olympic champions in mixed doubles returned to the very city where they qualified for the Pyeongchang Games — Portage La Prairie, Man. — on the weekend and went a perfect 6-0 to take the CanadInns Mixed Doubles Championship.
They beat Kadriana
Sahaiduk and Colton Lott of Winnipeg for the title. The event had a $26,000 purse.
Morris is focusing entirely on mixed doubles this year after winning gold in the new Olympic event last February, but Lawes is fully committed to her role as third on the women’s world championship team skipped by Winnipeg’s Jennifer Jones.
As a result Lawes and Morris will only play a few events this season. No matter, all they do when they finally do play together is win.