Grade 6 students aren’t supposed to be competitive at marquee Junior curling tournaments, but four Diamond Valley rock throwers didn’t get the memo.
The Oilfields Curling Club-based Jacob Libbus rink picked up a victory in their first appearance at the Kevin Martin Junior Bonspiel, April 27-29 at the Saville Sports Centre in Edmonton.
“The kids were a little outmatched,” said Mike Libbus of the rink skipped by son Jacob. “There was a lot of older kids and even the recreational side was pretty competitive. In saying that, they won a game against four 18-year-olds and considering the four boys are 11 that was pretty good.”
A mighty impressive feat for Libbus, third Chandler Vander Hock, second Justin Goheen and lead Nick Warkman. The annual bonspiel featured more than 60 teams from the province including 2012 Junior world champion Brendon Bottcher.
“Parents were coming up to them and saying ‘we’ll see you on TV in a few years’ after the one game they won,” said Mike Libbus. “It was pretty neat.”
The Black Diamond curlers were smart and heeded the advice of their coaches and recent provincial competitors, Mike Libbus, Brad MacInnis and Peter Keenan.
“Our coaches told us to have fun out there and get our laughs going and then when it was the time to do our throws or sweep we’d focus hard,” Jacob Libbus said. “That’s how it got better. We played very good that game.”
The Diamond Valley foursome notched a 7-5 victory in eight ends.
“When we won our game it was a fun experience,” Jacob Libbus said. “I don’t really have a favourite part about that game, all of it was good. There was a bunch of people upstairs and everybody from the top was cheering for us, even the parents from the other team.”
It was a fun learning experience for the young curlers.
“It was fantastic,” Libbus said. “Since we were (young) we played about five games (in the tournament) and it was pretty much for the experience because most of the people there were from 15 to 18.”
The excitement for the Junior curlers didn’t end there as they had a chance to enjoy some one-on-one time with 2010 Olympic gold medalist Kevin Martin.
“They got to hang out with Martin and he was telling them that his boy when he started out in the (Martin) ‘spiel lost his first four games by a total of 45-0,” Mike Libbus said.
The Oilfields Curling Club Juniors were encouraged by that factoid, especially after putting up five points in a losing cause in their tournament opener. The young skip was a keen listener when meeting with the tournament host
“He said keep coming back and playing hard and you’ll eventually get it,” said Jacob Libbus.
The Diamond valley rink formed as a foursome last year, but features four curlers with varying degrees of experience led by their veteran skip.
“I’ve been playing since I was four or five and they’ve been playing since they were about nine and 10,” Jacob Libbus said.
The rock throwers plan to return to the ‘spiel in 2013, but first want to ratchet up their training sessions over the calendar year.
“Hopefully we’ll try and comeback to the Kevin Martin ‘spiel and play harder and win,” Libbus said. “We’ll practice all season to get ready for that, probably about four days a week.”
