Season of Champions TV

It’s no surprise that the Canadian Curling Association has made another leap into the digital world.

Season of Champions TV was announced today and premiers live, online, on Wednesday, October 7 at 7:00 pm MT/9:00 pm ET.

It’s the latest innovation by the CCA to use Internet technology to bring the curling community closer to its championship events and the competitors. The strategy includes the on-going development of the curling.ca website, which underwent a dramatic facelift in July 2008, the seasonofchampions.ca website, with comprehensive information on all of the Season of Champions events, plus live scoring from each championship or event utilizing the CCA’s CurlCast program.

It all starts October 7 with a two-hour live webcast from Edmonton – home to December’s Tim Hortons Roar of the Rings, aka the Olympic Curling Trials.

Edmonton media personalities Jim Jerome (a famous Patch host) and Jackie-Rae Greening (she of many Edmonton host committees) will host seven of the eight skips who have qualified for the Roar: namely Kevin Martin, Kevin Koe, Randy Ferbey, Jennifer Jones, Shannon Kleibrink, Cheryl Bernard and Stefanie Lawton.

Ontario’s Glenn Howard is unavailable due to work commitments.

The athletes will appear in a live forum, when curling fans will have the opportunity to submit questions online, by simply by logging on to the Season of Champions website. CCA is strongly recommended that fans pre-register their questions.

“The Canadian Curling Association continues to want to reach out to our fans and showcase our events the best way possible,” explained Greg Stremlaw, CEO of the Canadian Curling Association.

“We have made it a priority to not only embrace information technology as a very important tool within our business, but also to use it to help bring curling enthusiasts closer to the best curling events and athletes in Canada.”

Another innovation for the 2009-10 season will be the introduction of AtThePatch.ca, a website dedicated to capturing all the fun and excitement of the infamous Keith’s Patch. This site, which will launch in early November, will feature entertainment information, Up Close and Personal interview sessions and everything else that makes Keith’s Patch the legendary party central for Season of Champions events.

Banner year for Canadian curling governance

Exactly one year ago today, we posted this story on the first Canadian Curling Association NCC (National Curling Congress) helmed by new CEO Greg Stremlaw.

Another Congress has now come and gone, and today’s news release reveals that another $880,000 surplus has been committed to the long-term reserve fund.

“Financial performance is the item that stands out,” said Stremlaw, in an interview with The Curling News.

“This puts us at $1.7 million in accumulated surplus.”

Indeed, as the CCA newser mentions, a Senior Program Officer with Sport Canada noted that the CCA’s financial performance has been particularly outstanding and that some of the results are hard to believe, given where the organization was only a few short years ago.

There were tons of interesting presentations, workshops, breakout sessions, discussions and notices of motion throughout the week. Items catching our keen TCN eye include:

• a new “Curling For Life” document, which closely examines the “paradigm shift” between curling as a lifetime recreational sport and curling as a high-performance athletic endeavour;

• an embracing of new social marketing efforts, from Facebook to Blogger to Twitter and whatever techno-stuff is still to come;

• plans to “Leverage 2010” and thus ensure that curling clubs are prepared for an expected avalanche of phone calls, walk-ins and other outreach from the general public during February’s Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games;

• an “investigation of the possibility of establishing” a Canadian Mixed Doubles Championship;

• implementation of a single competitor’s fee, starting in 2010-11, that will allow competitors to enter all disciplines which require the payment of a fee;

• a Member Association code of conduct, that will be developed for presentation and approval at the 2010 National Curling Congress.

In terms of elections, 2008-09 volunteer boss Fran Todd of Ontario (CCA photo above) has been replaced by her former Vice-Chair, Graham Prouse of Grande Prairie, Alberta, who now serves as Chair of the Board of Governors. Jack Bowman (Victoria, B.C.) is the new Vice-Chair.

CCA Governors Lew Andrews (St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador) and Beth Sullivan (Bathurst, New Brunswick) have retired from the Board, while three newcomers are on board: Elaine de Ryk of Greenfield Park, Quebec, Ron Hutton of Saint John, New Brunswick and Georgina Granchelli of Sydney, Nova Scotia.

For his part, Stremlaw seems pumped about just how smoothly the curling landscape is rolling out before him.

“I am personally witnessing a collaborative spirit with the stakeholders,” said Stremlaw.

“Truth be told, it hasn’t always been this way. At times the sport can become political.

“We’ve got 14 member associations and they’re all diverse, all different, but there seems to be a genuine interest in working together, getting ourselves to where we want to go.”


Anything else, you ask?

• CCA Governor and longtime curling leader Bernadette McIntyre does have other interests besides the Roaring Game... such as her very cool job ...

• Monsanto Canada has renewed its sponsorship agreements with CCA through to 2013. The news release indicates that the Continental Cup, which will not be contested in the upcoming Olympic season, will return for another run of events from 2011, 2012 and 2013 ...

• Monsanto, of course, also supports western-based curling clubs through the “A Better House” grant program, which disbursed some $80,000 in funding directly to prairie clubs this past season ...

• Another curling mover and shaker has taken a step back from the sport. Fast Eddie Lukowich, the former Brier and world champion skip, has resigned his position with the United States Curling Association after nearly 10 years, and just eight months prior to Vancouver 2010. Canwest has the story here ...

• Winnipeg’s Jill Officer made a recent appearance in Thunder Bay, Ont. on behalf of Olympic sponsor RBC ...

• World Senior men’s champion skip Eugene Hritzuk is on the air via The Curling Show ...

• And finally, this brief YouTube video asks the question “What’s curling all about?”
Well, gee, didn’t you know the answer...?

The Curling News: March 2009 Brier issue

The Brier.

It’s a curling tradition. And we at The Curling News have a Brier tradition: the careful, loving production of this essential issue, with all the reportage, speculation, photos, TV info and well, stuff that one could ever ask for.

Feast your eyes on this one, folks. In this issue...

• Here We Go Again: will anyone else crash Calgary’s Kevin Martin versus Glenn Howard Brier party?

• Innsbruck 2012: yes, there’s more curling in another Olympic Games, folks… and Rodger Schmidt says the new Youth Winter Olympic Games just might save the sport of curling

• Big Brotherly Love: Howard versus Howard at the Brier – why is it historic, and who has beaten whom, and where and when, leading up to the battle?

• The Wrench Speaks Yet Again: our final chapter, third of three, with Ed “The Wrench” Werenich… and you’d better believe he names the names

• The Curling News TV Guide: our monthly look at curling on television, with a bonus feature on new TSN talkie Brian Mudryk

• Brier Changes Afoot? Larry Wood has spies on the ground and all kinds of wild rumours on big changes coming to the sport of curling

• Sponsor Watch: Recession? What recession? New curling sponsors for CCA and for the WCF, too

• U.S. Curling Flaws: Matt Hames came, he played and then wrote about the U.S. Olympic Trials system

• Capital One Grand Slam Report: the BDO Canadian Open, “Average Guy” Ron, Capital One Cup points update, and Grey Power on tap for Grande Priaire

• 51 Years Ago: We revisit the March 18, 1958 issue of Canadian Curling News – Matt Baldwin wins his second Brier in a row over high-school aged Terry Braunstein, and you won’t believe the photo of a teenaged Ray “Tay” Turnbull

• A Tale of Many Howards: Glenn, Russ, and now Ashley, Scott and Carly (and Judy)… when is the Howard invasion going to stop?

• Q & A with Greg Stremlaw: the CCA CEO on his first 18 months on the job, and what still needs to be done

• They Said It: Martin, Dacey, Ferbey, Morris, Mead, Brown, Corner, Howard, Kennedy and 1953 Brier champ Russ Jackman in our monthly quotable quotes

AND MORE!

So... why not subscribe today?

Curling Rocks & Rings

We’ve got stuff on the Ontario men’s Tankard, Brazil, Teams of the Year nods, the Jolly Grain Giant and more, but first ...

The new school curling program Rocks and Rings was launched Monday morning at Toronto’s Thorncliffe Park, merely the largest elementary school in North America with a stunning 1,900 students.

Attendees included Ontario Minister of Education Kathleen Wynne, chief sponsor Ian Cunningham of Capital One, Greg Stremlaw and Fran Todd of the Canadian Curling Association, Leigh Armstrong from associate sponsor The Dominion of Canada, representatives from the Ontario Curling Association, various media (including The Curling News), ace curling photog Anil Mungal (image above) and even a film crew from TSN.

But the real stars of the show were the kids... but of course. The program instructors had them bouncing off the walls with excitement, even standing in a special circle to do their “happy dance” when they managed to draw the rings. We particularly liked the session where a small army of kids, each clutching a pint-sized brush, responded to green (“Hurry”) and red (“Whoa”) flashcards shaped like a stop sign.

It was wild, and noisy, and the purpose is crystal clear: get kids moving, and give them an introduction to curling they might not otherwise receive.

“For years, curling has been under-represented in large urban markets and inner-city jurisdictions,” said Stremlaw.

“This program goes after the root of this problem by allowing the sport of curling to be exposed to school children throughout the Greater Toronto Area and, in due course, other major urban centres.”

It was great fun to see all the formal speakers address the children, who sat cross-legged in front of the podium before they engaged in their “gym floor” curling sessions.

“There’s a guy who works in our office who loves to curl,” Minister Wynn quipped to the kids. “I think he would rather curl than come to work.”

That fellow, who was present, is Ken Thurston, a Senior Policy Advisor to the minister who has curled for no less than 40 years.

“Watching the students made it evident that Rocks and Rings is a fun and motivational way to build physical activity into daily routines,” said Thurston.

“The equipment is fairly simple, but the potential is great. I see this as a great way to get more volunteers into our schools – including parents, grandparents and community members who are fellow curling enthusiasts.”

Rocks and Rings maestro Chad McMullan was there too – of course – and said there has been great response to the program, which targets 30 schools in the greater Toronto area (GTA) through the remainder of the curling season.

“The kids and teachers absolutely love it and all the while we help address several of the challenges the sport faces,” said McMullan.

“We’ve had requests from schools and instructors in Vancouver, Kelowna, London, Halifax, Ottawa, the list goes on.”

After the launch, McMullan drove straight to Woodstock in time for his first match at the Ontario TSC Stores Tankard. And speaking of Woodstock, here cometh the links ...


• Here’s Tankard competitor Peter Steski with a zinger about his Brier-competitor grandfather, the legendary Rudy Steski. And we thought Peteski saves his best stuff for TSN’s Off The Record!

Speaking of Steski, the team that is actually now skipped by Heath McCormick held a 6-2 lead over Rob Lobel in Monday night’s seventh end... whereupon the Lobel brothers scored two, stole four in the eighth, dropped a deuce in the ninth and then scored another four coming home. That’s a surrender of 10 points in three of the last four ends for an epic 12-8 loss and an 0-2 start (McCormick is now 1-2). Yoinks.

Meanwhile, Glenn Howard ran into a Joe Frans roadblock last night but, hey, all is not lost... Howard is still leading his local Midland Major League, and if we remember correctly, that’s the one where he plays with his wife and both Wayne and Sherry Middaugh ...

Hey... where’s Pat Ryan? Well, given the initial flurry of excitement over a possible Ryan appearance this week, we must point out that this chance is now remote, seeing that Peter Corner welcomed his second child into the world last week.

By the way, you can also follow the Tankard action via this blog and also a photo gallery... geez, nice broom bag, Savs ...

• Speaking of Sherry, it’s bad enough she made an early exit at last week’s Ontario STOH... but couldn’t her own hometown newspaper find a better photo of her? Sheesh ...

• New Brunswick youngster Andrea Kelly is back in the Scotties show, after a 5-4 win over an even younger Mary Jane McGuire in the provincial final... and play is finally underway in Manitoba to declare the final STOH team for Victoria ...

• All we’ve seen from Brazilian media so far is this columnist’s blog page, which does have 14 comments posted to it. The World Curling Federation has a summary report here, plus a photo from the action. The story goes on to tell the tale of the teams that have qualified for the U.S. Olympic Team Trials in Colorado in a couple of weeks, and one big name that’s missing is Pete Fenson ...

• Speaking of the WCF, a couple of weeks after their story on the death of legendary curling builder Elizabeth Paterson-Brown, this piece has now appeared in Edinburgh’s Evening News ...

• Here’s another fellow – U.S. sports marketing pundit Joe Favorito – who approves of USA Curling’s recent promotional efforts ...

• DID YOU KNOW: that the Saskatchewan men start today, and the Jolly Grain Giant is trying to turn back the clock? And that Newfoundland and Labrador, featuring Brad Gushue, started yesterday ...?

• Remember the Yukon’s Orest Peech? Well, his 0-11 record at the 1999 Brier actually did him some good, once ...

• In this story on the Vancouver 2010 curling legacy, the CCA’s Warren Hansen grumps about the 10,000-seat permanent venue that eventually became a 6,000-seat “multi-purpose community recreation centre” ...

• Canada’s double world champions – Kevin Martin and Jennifer Jones – are both up for Team of the Year honours at the upcoming Canadian Sport Awards ...

• mandy is raving about the illustrious language of curling, which includes her own impressive linguistics on the sport’s “enthusiastic stick-to-it-ive verve” and, of course, “the icy cool in your loins” ...

• And finally... Happy Birthday Bob!

Who is Howard Jones?

RAMA, Ontario – We’ve got some skins media to show and tell y’all about, below, but first...

Following this blogpost from yesterday, we’ve been getting some queries about this Howard Jones fellow. As in, who is he, anyway?

Come ON people. You are supposedly members of the Google-slash-YouTube generation. I mean, the guy played at Live Aid, for gosh’s sake.

Here are two Howard hits... one from his hairy heyday, and another where he has a more normal do, plus an all-star band backing him up.

We’d say Howard did quite well back in the day. Just as the other Howard, Glenn, is doing this weekend at the skins. So far.

As for media today, TSN has some videos, interviews, stories and pics on their website, here and here... the Toronto Star was here... and Bob Weeks asks if the CCA is paying attention to all the athlete-oriented hoopla.

We’d say they are indeed. As Weeks notes, and as we previously noted online and in the December issue, the CCA is all over athletes like Kevin Martin, Jennifer Jones and tough-guy John Morris in an multi-media blitzkrieg to sell event tickets. And perhaps mindful of some previous criticism, these spots are bigger budget, high-gloss productions when compared to those of the past.

More evidence the CCA is wired in? CEO Greg Stremlaw was right here, in person, at Casino Rama yesterday.