A Black Diamond team has already broken new ground in the foothills curling community and when the Alberta Men ' s Championships get underway Feb. 8 they ' re looking to make history.
The Oilfields Curling Club ' s (OCC) Mike Libbus rink continues its Cinderella run for a provincial title at the Alberta Men ' s Championships, Feb. 8-12 in Camrose. As the first Black Diamond team to qualify for the provincials in men ' s curling the Libbus rink is embracing its role as trailblazers in the community.
“ Coming from a small town club I just think it gives a lot of people that get to play against us are now saying ‘ well these guys are not much better than us, this is not as hard as we think ' ,” Libbus said. “ Maybe it ' s realizing that the quality of play out here is just as good as anywhere else.”
Seldom do small towns produce provincial champions in the sport. Since 1928, just 10 rinks based in rural communities have taken home the Alberta men ' s title. The accomplishment is even more rare for foothills-based clubs as Libbus is vying for the first foothills-area title since Hugh Brown ' s Claresholm rink won it all in 1955 and Stu Beagle ' s Blackie team raised the trophy in 1949.
Fortunately, for Libbus, skip Matt Blandford, second Brad MacInnis and lead Peter Keenan the team will not be going to Camrose alone.
“ All the locals here at the curling club have been congratulating us, they have a sign up and we ' re seeing a lot of locals that are heading up to the event as well,” Libbus said. “ We ' re expecting a lot of support up there.”
Libbus, who ' s also the manager of the OCC, said he ' s benefited from the support of the tight-knit foothills community in preparation for Camrose. Highwood Curling Club manager John Steel is going to help look after the ice during Libbus ' absence and Turner Valley Golf Club ' s JD Scheller will help manage the club, allowing for Libbus to concentrate on the championships.
“ We ' ve been fortunate that we ' ve got a lot of guys locally that have stepped up to the plate and volunteered to help us do it and told us not to worry about anything while we ' re gone and they ' ll look after the curling club,” he said. The community support is invaluable for the Black Diamond curlers who can ' t afford to be distracted in advance of a competition featuring the reigning Olympic gold medalist and defending Alberta champion Kevin Martin and 2010 world champion Kevin Koe.
“ When I first started thinking about possibly getting there when we put our team together the thought was am I going to be asking for autographs before the game starts?” said Libbus on the prospects of facing Koe and Martin. “ Right now our mindset has changed, we ' re putting in more time than anybody else we figure or just as much as time. We ' re thinking our chances are just as good as anybody.”
One feather Libbus has in his cap is a victory over Koe, who was curling without his usual foursome, in a Calgary bonspiel in September.
“ Playing against a world champion no matter who ' s on his team was exciting for us,” Libbus said. “ The fact we came out on top and actually dominated the game, we were pretty proud of ourselves.”
The Libbus rink is not only representing Black Diamond, but southern Alberta as well — a region almost completely void of success in the last two decades at the championships. Edmonton ' s firm grip on the provincial curling ranks is clearly reflected by its 16 consecutive Alberta men ' s titles. The last Calgary champion was Ed Lukowich in 1994. Libbus said he ' s eager to reverse that trend.
“ It ' s definitely been a long time since someone from Calgary has represented Alberta at the Brier,” he said. “ Those guys in the north are definitely going to be tough and they all seem to play each other at the Saville Sports Centre, which helps them a lot.”
As first time participants at the Alberta Men ' s, the Libbus rink isn ' t happy just to be there.
“ We ' re going in expecting to try and compete,” Libbus said. “ We ' ve kind of reached our goal, but now our goals have changed. We don ' t go into any event thinking we ' re not going to be able to win it.”
The Libbus rink opens its quest for a provincial title with a Feb. 8, 9:30 a.m. draw against Edmonton ' s Tom Appelman rink. Libbus lost his last game versus Appelman in the last end at a world curling tour event, but the Black Diamond curler is expecting a different result in Camrose.
“ We ' re going in expecting to beat them,” Libbus said. “ They ' re a tough team though. They ' ve got lots of experience and were there last year, but we definitely think we can hold our own with that team; we match up pretty well.
“ We ' ve looked at it, we ' ve got a pretty good side of the draw, we ' re pretty happy where we ' re situated,” Libbus added. “ We ' re going to go up there and just take it one game at a time an hopefully you ' ll see us in the final.”
