Like father, like son.
A High Country family tradition is being continued as Turner Valley’s Jacob Libbus qualified for the 2020 Boston Pizza Cup, the Alberta Men’s Curling Championships, some eight years after his father Mike competed at provincials.
“We always used to talk about that, how he played in men’s provincials and how their team got really competitive,” said Libbus, a second-year education student at the University of Alberta. “And for myself, moving up and making sure I know I was on the right path, it’s pretty cool to know that you’ve played in such a high level event, same as your dad before you.”
Libbus navigated the 14-team field at the Ottewell Curling Club to earn the second of three berths through the provincial playdowns on Jan. 17-18 in Edmonton.
The squad polished off a 10-1 win over Vermilion’s Dustin Lavigne, 7-6 triumph over Lac La Biche’s Corey Leach before dropping a 6-5 decision to Kevin Tym in the A-event semifinal.
From there, Team Libbus got past Slave Lake’s Ryan Norman 8-6 and edged Edmonton’s Warren Cross 6-5 to set up a rematch with Tym in the B-final.
The seesaw contest went down to the wire with Libbus picking up a deuce in the 10th end to seal the 7-6 result.
“The key was mostly bouncing back from the semifinal loss,” the skip said. “Just knowing we had a chance against them and making sure we got into that situation again.
“They were up one and we figured you know what let’s stay in it, this is a chance to get to men’s provincials and play on arena ice, that’s a big opportunity.”
This will mark the second provincials in as many months for Team Libbus.
The Saville Centre team, with Libbus, third Dustin Mikush, second Michael Henricks and lead Zachary Pawliuk, finished as silver medallists at the Alberta U21 championships on Jan. 5 in Lloydminster, dropping a narrow decision to longtime foe Ryan Jacques in the provincial championship match.
“We knew we had a chance going in,” Libbus said. “We were still getting over our provincials loss in juniors so we went on and figured why can’t we get into the men’s and have this be a good second phase thing we wanted to do.
“We took a couple days off to process the whole provincial final and hopped right back into it to hopefully qualify for the men’s provincials which we did. So it was awesome.”
The other Ottewell qualifiers were Ted Appelman and Evan van Amsterdam. The Fort St. John playdowns saw Peace River’s Scott Webb advance while Calgary’s Carter Lautner, Robert Johnson, Strathmore’s Kevin Park and Airdrie’s Aaron Sluchinski qualified through the Inglewood Curling Club playdowns.
Brendan Bottcher, the 2017 and 2018 Alberta champion, Jeremy Harty (with Okotokian Kyler Kleibrink throwing third stones), James Pahl and Karsten Sturmay had previously qualified for the event.
“I think Alberta is the toughest province to get out of at any age level,” Libbus said. “Just having that depth, we’re going to have to play pretty good, especially with the younger guys, well they’re older than me, but the younger guys in that group, Sturmay and Harty, they’re up and comers.
“And to solidify ourselves in that group would be awesome.”
Libbus is a past provincial champion at both the U18 and U21 levels.
The 2020 Boston Pizza Cup presented by Best Western is Feb. 5-9 in Westlock.
For more information go to 2020BostonPizzaCup.com
