Curling with giants
Alberta’s Koe wins third Canadian title,
OTTAWA— In 2009, Kevin Koe was still tucked into the shadows of giants. Not only did he have to share a province with two of the best skips in the world, he had to share a city, with Randy Ferbey and Kevin Martin still dominating the sport from their base in Edmonton and keeping him far from the Brier.
“It’s just like, if you’re playing on a line with Gretzky,” Canadian curling veteran Colleen Jones said at the time, “you’re going to get better.”
Koe finally made it through Alberta and into the Canadian curling championship the following year. He won, and went on to win the world championship. He won the Brier again in 2014, and even though he was only making his fifth appearance this year, he was already among the more decorated skips.
And now he is moving closer to the best, winning his third Canadian title with a 9-5 win against Brad Gushue on Sunday night in Ottawa. Koe and his Alberta rink will represent Canada at the worlds again this year, claiming a first-place prize worth $225,000, including $144,000 in government funding over the next two years for his team, with third Marc Kennedy, second Brent Laing, and lead Ben Hebert.
They emerged victorious from a field that had widely been described as the deepest ever assembled for a Canadian championship. There were rinks with Olympic gold medals, world titles and their names on the Brier Tankard.
Just to get to the final, for example, Koe and Gushue both had to get through the reigning Olympic gold medal winners from Northern Ontario. Each game was decided by a point, with Koe squeaking through his semifinal with a measurement to count two in the final end.
His experience in the shadows helped, he said.
“I remember beating your head against the wall wondering, before we got to the first one, if we were ever going to get to one,” Koe said. “Fighting those battles in provincials just prepares you for when you get to the Brier, because they were always the best teams in the world.”
Against Gushue, one of the most experienced skips in the field — albeit one still seeking his first win at the Brier — Koe stole one point in each of the first two ends. (At one point, Gushue went backstage, out of public view: “I didn’t break anything, didn’t do anything. I just went in there to compose myself.”)
Koe hit for two in the fourth end to take a 4-1 lead, and seemed to be in control heading to the fifth-end break. And he did it as he has often done things on the ice, without betraying a hint of emotion.
It was two years ago that Koe left a team that helped him to a Canadian title. He formed his new team — a so-called super team — with an eye to next year’s Olympic trials. Koe made it sound like any business decision, telling The Canadian Press: “It was no disrespect to the guys.”
In the seventh end on Sunday, with Newfoundland back to within one, Koe sent a fastball down the ice to hit just a sliver of a stone. The takeout connected, Alberta scored three.
“We call him ‘The Ninja,’ ” Kennedy said with a smile, “because he’s just deadly and stealthy.”
Koe’s celebration was muted, sounding like someone preparing for a quick trip to the grocery store. It is a hallmark of his personality, and one of the reasons he is effective as a leader, according to Kennedy.
“You can’t put a price on experience,” he said. “And the experience Kevin’s had as a skip against the Martins and Ferbeys over the years has trained him for situations like this week.”