Joey Payeur
Winning a national championship is the goal of every serious competitive curler.
But as for winning two of them in the same season . . . well, Trevor Bonot is not going to get ahead of himself just yet.
The Stratton native who now lives in Thunder Bay already stands atop one curling mountain after he and his sister, Jackie McCormick, teamed up with Megan and Kory Carr of the Lakehead to capture the Canadian mixed curling title in Yarmouth, N.S. back in November.
But Bonot understands he faces a much more daunting task if he wants to be the 2017 Tim Hortons Brier winner signifying the top men’s curling team in the country.
The road to that dream passes through the Fort Frances Curling Club at the Travelers West region qualifier, which runs Friday through Sunday.
The top three finishers in the five-team, round-robin event will advance to the men’s provincial championship Feb. 8-12 in Thunder Bay.
A win there and Bonot will find himself at the Brier in St. John’s, N.L. from March 4-12.
“I haven’t played back in Fort in many years, and it will be nice to be able to have family and friends come watch and get that hometown [area] support,” noted Bonot.
But the skip won’t be joined by his normal teammates from the Tbytel Major League of Curling for the qualifier here.
“Most of my team there decided they didn’t want to go into the men’s playdowns,” Bonot explained.
“[Teammate] Jamie Childs and I were looking to continue on in them.”
As it turned out, Geraldton’s Mike Assad didn’t advance through the East qualifier and was going to be missing two players himself if he wanted to take another shot at the West qualifier.
So Assad contacted Bonot about joining forces with him and rinkmates Andrew Hackner (son of former Brier and world champ Al “The Iceman” Hackner) and Dwayne Sutherland.
As for which of the two usual skips would throw last rocks and make the final call, Bonot said Assad had no qualms about stepping down a rung.
“When we talked, it was Mike’s idea that he wanted to do more sweeping and wanted us to have the best chance to advance,” Bonot recounted.
“It was a compliment to me,” Bonot added. “He just thought since our mixed team had just won nationals, why not take that roll and ride with it?”
That means Bonot will skip, with Assad at third, Hackner at second, Sutherland at lead, and Childs filling the role of fifth.
Bonot and Assad have played together before—most recently last week when Assad stepped in as a replacement on Bonot’s team in the Major League playoffs in Thunder Bay, where they qualified for the semi-finals before being ousted.
“We’re very similar strategy-wise. But we’ll need some time to gel and get used to how we each handle things,” Bonot admitted.
“We’ll be learning on the fly.”
Meanwhile, Kory Carr, Bonot’s mixed teammate, will skip his own team at the West qualifier that will include Devlin native Mike Badiuk at third and Travis Showalter of Nestor Falls at lead.
Also looking to advance to the provincials will be teams skipped by Colin Koivula (Thunder Bay), Bryan Burgess (Kakabeka Falls), and Jordan Chandler (Sudbury).
“We’re the lowest-ranked team there because we just got thrown together,” conceded Bonot.
“We’re going to have to work hard to come together.
“But I think our chances are good to qualify,” he added.
“All five are good teams and all have members who have been to the provincials.”
Bonot would love to make it to his first Brier, and likely would be the first curler to hold two national championships simultaneously if he was the last man standing in St. John’s.
But he’s also a realist.
“It’s one game, one rock at a time, and we’ll go from there,” he remarked.
“It’s already been a great year for me and I’m going in with a positive attitude,” Bonot added.
“There’s no pressure on us,” he noted. “But there would have to be a lot of stars that align for us to end up winning the Brier.
“The concept sounds great, but we’re just looking at that first game in Fort Frances right now,” he stressed.
The first draw goes Friday at 7:30 p.m., with action continuing at 9:30 a.m., 2:30 p.m., and 7:30 p.m. on Saturday.
The final round-robin draw is set for Sunday at 9 a.m.
If tie-breakers are needed, the first will take place at 1 p.m. and a second one, if necessary, at 5 p.m.
