Jamie Mountain
Their faith in each other never wavered and it was ultimately what led them to success.
The Fort Frances-based quartet of Clint Barton (skip), Scott Gobeil (third), Don Robertson (second), and Steve Maki (lead) didn’t let the pressure of playing at home get to them as they cruised to the title at the 1996 Police Curling Championships.
The squad will be one of two teams inducted into next month’s Fort Frances Sports Hall of Fame class.
“The fact that there was such large crowds at the curling club–it was right here in our hometown–it brought a lot of people into the rink to watch. It was a pretty special week,” Roberston recalled of the championship run.
“It was like that all week and was really packed for the final games.”
Roberston, Barton, Gobeil, and Maki of the Fort Frances Police Service won the right to represent Northern Ontario at the Canadian Police Curling Championships that year–a national event has crowned a champion each year since 1956.
Each team in the event has to compete and qualify through regional and provincial playdowns just to reach the nationals, which closely mirrors the format of the Canadian Men’s Curling Championship (The Brier).
On March 23 1996, they won the national championship in dramatic fashion with a thrilling last rock victory in the final.
“Yeah, a little bit, but we had quite a bit of experience playing at that level before,” Roberston replied when asked if they had felt any more pressure being the host team.
“Another thing that we had to contend with is that most of the four of us were on the [tournament] organizing committee. Like, there were other functions going on, dinners, and the out-of-town teams had to have accommodations, host drivers taking them around, and our team was heavily involved in all of the organizing side of it,” he recalled.
“So we were so busy curling and hosting the event that, probably, we didn’t feel too much of the pressure until late in the week.”
You could tell they didn’t let the pressure effect them as Team Northern Ontario compiled a 9-2 in the round-robin to earn first place honours in a field of 12 teams before they prevailed in the playoff round over Team Alberta.
The victory was made even more memorable because it happened in front of a home town capacity crowd at the Fort Frances Curling Club. Also, no other Northern Ontario team had ever won that title.
“Just the fact that we had a lot of confidence in our own abilities having played at that level on the Cash Money Tour, at the time,” Roberston said of how the team kept level-headed through out the tournament.
“It wasn’t called the World Curling Tour at that time, but it became that,” he noted.
“But we played in a lot of large events against a lot of world class players, and the fact that we had all been to the nationals several times before individually on different units, or as a group, it gave us a lot of confidence.
“We were all aware of our own abilities but we had a lot of faith in our teammates, too,” Roberston added.
Although 1996 was the only national championship for Roberston, Barton, Gobeil, and Maki together, it was not the only success the team experienced.
As a unit, they captured bronze in 1995 while playing in Edmonton. As a team or in various combinations with others, they amassed over 30 national championship appearances, capturing a total of 15 podium finishes.
Along the way, members of the squad also garnered seven national all-star awards at their respective positions.
Robertson said it was a great honour learning that they had been named to this year’s Fort Frances Sports Hall of Fame class and that he is looking forward to the whole ceremony experience.
The hall’s third induction banquet is slated for Saturday, Aug. 10 at La Place Rendez-Vous.
“I heard about this nomination, and then the fact that we were selected, and I went down to the arena and looked at the list of the hall itself and the other athletes, builders that are in it and I thought well, that’s pretty special, to be included in that group,” he enthused.
“I haven’t been to the Hall of Fame dinner before. I wasn’t even aware it was so popular and the fact of the previous inductees . . . I’m looking forward to seeing what it’s all about.”
