THUNDER BAY – Normally, the defending champion at the Northern Ontario men’s curling championship has a big target on their collective backs.
Trevor Bonot isn’t so sure that’s true this year.
With four Grand Slam of Curling wins under his belt, John Epping this season joined forces with last year’s finalist, Tanner Horgan, his brother Jacob and Ian McMillan, and will enter this week’s playdowns as the likely favourites in the 13-team field.
That suits Bonot just fine.
“It’s very exciting that we get to have our provincial championship here, and being the defending champions is fun, but we’re fortunate that Team Epping has had a hell of a year. We don’t have as big a target is the way I look at it,” Bonot said.
“We get to be underdogs. So that’s kind of fun.”
It was a dream season for Bonot, lead Kurtis Byrd, second Jordan Potts and lead Mike McCarville, who knocked off Horgan in a thrilling Northern Ontario final in Little Current a year ago, then went on to finish 5-3 at the Brier, just missing a playoff spot.
This season has been a little more up-and-down to date, but one that’s allowed them to hone their games ahead of provincials, which open on Tuesday night at Port Arthur Curling Centre.
“It’s a long season. We did a lot of travelling this year, really had a lot of fun with that. We didn’t win as many games as we would have liked. We qualified quite a few times and we won more games than we lost, so we can’t be too upset about that,” Bonot said.
“We just re-learnt that we’re a gritty team and we know that we like to stick it out and play hard right to the bitter end.”
McCarville, seeking to make a third appearance at the Brier, said they’re up for the challenge, whether they’re the favourites or not.
“There are a whole bunch of teams out there that are all looking to do what we did last year. We surprised a lot of people by winning last year. There are a lot of teams that are looking to do that and we’re looking to try to equal what we did last year.”
It’s the third season of the post-Brad Jacobs era, the 11-time champion now curling in Alberta with Brendan Bottcher’s former team, after a stint in Manitoba.
As a result, 13 teams are vying for the championship this year, including seven from Thunder Bay, a list that includes skips Brian Adams Jr., Frank Morissette, Gary Weiss, Dylan Johnston, Chris Silver and Zach Warkentin.
Navigating the field in the triple-knockout format isn’t going to be easy, McCarville said.
“It’s the game of curling. It all comes to timing. We’re working hard right now in practice and hopefully just throwing the rock as good as we can – technically trying to be as best as we can going in there,” McCarville said.
“It comes down to one game at a time and battling it out. We know there’s a lot of good teams out there that are going to play really good too and hopefully we can just edge them that little bit.”
McCarville will also be keeping an eye on his daughter, Bella, who throws second stones for Claire Dubinsky, a team coming off a win at the Northern Ontario U18 championship this past weekend and is set to make its provincial women’s debut this week.
“It’s super neat that they’re playing. Because it’s here, they wanted to get that experience. Their coach thought it was a great idea to play against the best in Northern Ontario. They’re getting closer to that level,” he said.
Bonot’s first match is Wednesday at 11:30 a.m. against the winner of Tuesday night’s match between Frank Morrissette and Jeff Brown.
