A lot can change in two months.
Mired in uncertainty and one player short of a foursome, Team Young has since found a fourth member in Okotoks’ Quinn Heffron and rallied for one of eight berths at the Optimist U18 Men’s southern playdowns in just their third bonspiel together.
“At first it was a little rocky because we’ve been a trio for the last couple years,” said Team Young second Dale McMillan. “(Lead Blake Johnson) and I have been on a team for the last three or four now and we always struggled finding that fourth person that really gelled and clicked.”
The foursome, skipped by Desmond Young, have done the nearly impossible since the shake-up. They’ve won early and often in less than eight weeks together on the ice, capped by its qualification through districts in Airdrie on Jan. 24.
“Circumstances happened, life happened, Quinn happened and we’ve all gelled from the get-go,” McMillan added. “Before we had the circumstance where it was three people and then the one, which didn’t help.
“We heard about Quinn and how he was looking for a team and it worked out.”
Heffron brings championship experience to the juvenile squad.
He teamed up with Jacob Libbus to take the Bantam Southern crown last spring. When the Oilfields Curling Club team was broken up into two, Heffron found the fit wasn’t there anymore and sought a new opportunity with some old acquaintances.
“They created two teams this year and I was skipping one of them and it just didn’t work,” Heffron said. “It’s been a world of a difference. No problems and stress free.
“We’ve just been getting the chemistry going, getting the team figured out and the roles set.”
Heffron and Johnson were teammates dating back to their days with the Shannon Kleibrink-led Okotoks Junior Curling Academy where they made a run to the southerns at the Bantam level.
“Before it was a struggle to get everyone together. Team dynamics weren’t really clicking,” Johnson said. “Once we added Quinn on things have been great.
“Everybody is willing to make the effort to get together.”
No easy feat given the proximities at play. The three Okotokians and Young, out of picturesque Banff, have made the arrangements work.
“We usually alternate,” Johnson said. “We’re pretty easy. Nobody is really bothered to go anywhere because we’re all happy to be together.”
Winning-builds chemistry and after an up-and-down weekend at the district playdowns Team Young navigated its way to the final of eight berths into southerns. Young shook off losses to Okotoks’ Cailen Knopp and Medicine Hat’s Connor Zeidell to rally for back-to-back wins including its clincher in the C-final versus Delia’s Jared Mason by an 8-1 count.
“We kind of had the mojo at the beginning there in districts, how we went 2-and-0 and had to win in the final and then definitely took the long way home,” said McMillan, who still volunteers his time with the Okotoks Junior Curling Academy. “It’s basically trying to focus on that confidence and have a rock solid feeling going in before.”
Also bound for southerns are Okotoks’ Team Knopp, the Oilfields Curling Club’s Libbus and Jared Palanuik as well as Team Smith third Michael Steele from Okotoks.
The southern playdowns go Feb. 7-9 at the Cochrane Curling Club.
For more information go to saca.ca/playdowns
