Lucas Punkari
With his highly-successful collegiate curling career at Fanshawe College in London now in the books, Stratton native Cody Heyens finally has had a chance to look back on the ride that saw him win a gold and silver medal at the last two provincial championships and a gold and a bronze at the national collegiate invitational tournament.
“Getting the chance to win back-to-back national medals was just great,” enthused the 20-year-old, who graduated from the Electromechanical Engineering Technician program in January and now is studying in the Manufacturing Engineering Technician program at Fanshawe.
“The coaches here and everyone involved with the program did a phenomenal job, and the college helps out so much,” he noted.
“It didn’t cost us a thing to go to the nationals in Edmonton this year or Peterborough last year, so we really didn’t have to worry about anything except focusing on curling.”
After playing lead on a Falcons’ rink that earned a silver at the 2012 OCAA championships in Sault Ste. Marie before capturing the CCAA tournament in Peterborough, Heyens remained in that position this season, although the squad itself had some slight alterations.
“Our skip, Chris Jay, graduated so D.J. Ronaldson moved up to vice while Luke Grasby and I remained the front end,” explained Heyens, who was the vice on the Muskie rink that earned a silver medal at the 2011 OFSAA championships.
“So we brought in Graeme Robson, who had been the skip for the St. Clair College mixed team in Windsor, who our skip had played with before in some bonspiels,” he noted.
“He wasn’t really a stranger to us, so that transition was fairly easy for us as he fit right in.”
The first half of the season saw Heyens and his fellow students take to the ice quite frequently as they competed in a variety of ways at the Highland Country Club in London.
“We had about 10 guys come at the start of the year, so we would have some guys playing on the men’s team one game and then joining up with the mixed team the next time out,” Heyens said.
“Everyone got to cycle through like that, so it really gave us a chance to play with one another and learn different things about the game,” he reasoned.
Once the final rosters were set for the competitive rinks, the men’s squad hit the ground running, taking part in four men’s bonspiels as well as competing in an invitational event hosted by Mohawk College in Hamilton.
“That was good for us as we got to see some of the other teams for the first time before provincials,” Heyens said.
“We didn’t have the chance do that at all prior to going last year,” he added.
Competing close to home in St. Thomas, the Falcons had a long road just to make it into the playoffs at the OCAA event Feb. 13-17, finishing in a three-way tie for third place following the round-robin with St. Clair College (Windsor) and Fleming College (Peterborough).
After winning a pair of tie-breakers to advance to the playoff round, the Falcons then defeated the defending champs from Sault College before prevailing in the championship game over Confederation College (Thunder Bay).
“Those tie-breaker games took place on Saturday night and Sunday morning, so we didn’t really have any time off,” Heyens recalled.
“We were spent both mentally and physically from the round-robin, but we just never lost focus as the only thing that really existed for us at that point was the curling games we were in,” he explained.
“And in both of those games against the Soo and Confederation, we just out-curled both of them as a team.”
As a result of their victory, the Falcons had a chance to defend their CCAA national title, travelling to Edmonton for this year’s tournament which ran from March 20-23.
“I had never travelled that far to compete in a curling event before, so I was very excited about heading out there,” Heyens enthused.
“The ice in Edmonton was just phenomenal, and it was very different from what we played on at home, so it was just great to curl on it.”
Despite making it to the playoffs for a second-straight year, the Falcons were unable to repeat as national collegiate champions, falling in the semi-finals to the hometown rink from Grant MacEwan College.
“Getting the bronze medal was a bummer after we had won the gold last year as we had expectations of getting the gold again,” Heyens admitted.
“But the way I look at it, we got a medal at the nationals, and to accomplish that was pretty unreal,” he remarked.
Now that his time curling at Fanshawe is officially over, Heyens is focusing on his academic studies for the rest of this season before he graduates in January and ventures out into the workforce.
“I’ve been putting it on the back burner for a little bit with school and everything, but I’ll have to find a job in the real world soon,” he quipped.
“But wherever I end up, I still want to be involved with curling as I just love the game,” he added.
