If Scott Gobeil is going to be king of the rings once again, he and his rinkmates are going to have to earn it.
The Fort Frances skip and his team of third Jeff Simpkins, second Dennis Smith, and lead Pete LeDrew are headed to Summerside, P.E.I. to represent Northern Ontario at the 48th-annual Canadian Police Curling Championships, which run March 16-23.
While the Maritimes is renowned for its hospitality, Gobeil doesn’t expect to get a warm welcome from the other rinks.
“This is certainly the toughest field that I’ve had to face,” said Gobeil, who was reluctant to making any predictions of his team’s outcome. “We’ll find out when we get there.
“You are going to lose some games. It’s too good a field to go undefeated,” he noted. “The important part is to not lose two in a row, and not to get down when you do lose.”
Gobeil’s opponents this year possess a wealth of experience and success at this tournament, including former three-time champion Mark Johnson (Alberta) and former two-time champs Garth Mitchell (Ontario) and Don Nelson (Manitoba)
That’s not even including defending champ Paul Saulnier of P.E.I., who won the title in Trois-Rivieres, Que. last year and will have the hometown crowd in his corner this time around.
“Ontario and Alberta will be the toughest ones,” remarked Gobeil, who has to play both Johnson and Mitchell in Sunday’s opening two draws.
This will be Gobeil’s eighth time on the national stage. He captured the title here in 1996 as a member of the Clint Barton rink.
The 15-year police officer, who has curled for 24 years, will have familiar company as Simpkins has been by his side for three of those appearances.
Smith was on Gobeil’s team in Halifax, N.S. in 2000 while LeDrew is the newcomer, having just joined the rink this year.
Gobeil was clear his team won’t be trying to engage in any tight defensive battles in Summerside.
“We like junking it up,” he noted. “We’re going to throw a lot of draws, and try and play for some big ends.”
Meanwhile, the circumstances which led Gobeil’s crew to the nationals this year had him less than thrilled about the state of police curling in Northern Ontario.
A three-team tournament scheduled for Terrace Bay was cancelled when the host team pulled out, followed soon after by Dryden’s withdrawal, which led to Gobeil’s rink automatically qualifying for the nationals.
In fact, Gobeil expects Northern Ontario will be merged with Manitoba for next year’s provincial playdowns, which already is done on the Royal Canadian Legion curling circuit.
“Geography has just killed us,” he said of the curling jurisdiction which stretches all the way from the Manitoba border to Sudbury. “We had 14 teams compete in just the zone playdowns in 1990.
“But it’s dwindled through the years, basically because guys didn’t want to drive 15 hours to lose two games and have to turn around and drive back another 15 hours.
“We also don’t have the young curlers like we used to have,” Gobeil added.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
