The winds of change have blown through curling sheets in the foothills this season.
The Foothills Men’s Triple Crown of Curling, which encompasses bonspiels at the Oilfields, Highwood and Okotoks clubs in a three-stop aggregate series, has been cancelled for the 2012-13 season.
“It’s not really dead, we’re just going to take a year off to try and revamp it,” said Triple Crown founder and organizer Gord Rhodes. “I think the competition is getting a little stiff for the club teams so we decided we’re going to run it a little differently, but needed some time to try and do that.”
Rhodes came up with the idea for the Foothills Triple Crown of Curling in 2006 as a means to generate interest in the sport and to foster an increase in registration.
“It started out to be something to draw people in to our bonspiels,” Rhodes said. “The first year it worked great, all the ’spiels were full and everybody was enjoying it, but then the club teams backed off going into spiels so it went the other way.”
Oilfields Curling Club manager Mike Libbus, one of the original committee members for the introduction of the Triple Crown, said it’s really disappointing to see the series come to a halt.
“As a small club to have 32 teams at our bonspiel was great and we definitely blamed it on the Triple Crown,” Libbus said. “Extra teams that had never been out in our area they came because of the Triple Crown. It’s pretty sad to see it go.”
The series was introduced in 2007 and saw a local team win the title for its first two years through High River’s Brad Culp foursome. Teams from Airdrie would win the next three Triple Crown titles, before High River’s Kevin Muir took home the title in Okotoks for the 2012 series.
However, the 2011-12 Triple Crown marked a turning point for the series as foothills-based registration began to dissipate, especially from Okotoks.
“Last year we didn’t have enough local support,” Libbus said. “We didn’t have any teams sign up from Okotoks. We only had about four out of High River and Black Diamond and the rest all came from Calgary. We did look at other options on clubs and to maybe go to a third leg somewhere else that was going to support us, but with everybody’s volunteer time and they do so much already it was hard to get it to come together.”
Highwood Curling Club manager John Steel said dwindling registration for the High River stop on the circuit came down to a majority held opinion from club members.
“For all of our bonspiels the numbers have dropped,” Steel said. “And one of the reasons our membership kept telling us was ‘well we’re playing against some super hot teams in the ‘spiel.”
Libbus has a different perspective on the Triple Crown, a series he credited for launching his career from the club team level all the way to the provincial championships in February.
“I never listened to that it was too competitive,” Libbus said. “I was a team that started in it from day one we were just a club team and we knew going through the C division can get you just as many points as the A. We owe everything to the Triple Crown, everything we play in now is because that’s where it started playing against the teams and trying to be a little more competitive.
“Any club team can do it.”
The Black Diamond curler hasn’t given up on the circuit just yet.
“I still believe in the philosophy and idea of it,” said Libbus, who is tossing around the idea of a Triple Crown event within the bonspiels. “We might have to tweak it a little bit to have a Triple Crown only event. We’re going to have to see how our bonspiels play out this year and if the numbers dwindle even less then I think we’ll have to go back to the Triple Crown.”
Rhodes remains optimistic the Triple Crown is on a merely temporary hiatus.
“We’re going to work our butts off this winter and try and get something organized for next year for sure,” Rhodes said.
On the women’s side, the Foothills Triple Crown will definitely not be happening in 2012-13 either.
The Highwood stop on the tour was nixed due to a lack of interest, but organizers are hopeful to retain a Double Crown to include the Oilfields and Okotoks ‘spiels.
However, Foothills Ladies Double Crown organizer Gail Giroux said the women’s circuit is also on the verge of taking the 2012-13 season off.
“We’re not sure if it’s really going to be a go or not,” Giroux said.
“It’s just really tough to get the teams to commit. We’re hoping, but it’s looking pretty bleak for us as well.”
Giroux said the logistics of the event, more so than the competitiveness of the field, has been the biggest hurdle to overcome in locking down team registration.
“The original date for the Okotoks Ladies Bonspiel, which is the final leg of our triple crown, was planned for Family Day weekend and that was a real big issue because of course the girls couldn’t commit,” Giroux said.
“We managed to get that date changed but now other things have come up.”
She said a decision on whether to go ahead with the Double Crown would likely have to be made by mid-November.
