 Jeremy Harty and his Calgary-based squad are quietly rising through the ranks, finding their place in the men's game. "We are excited to get a practice game against Team Laura Walker before competition begins," said Harty ahead of Sunday morning's exhibition match at the Calgary Curling Club. "They are the reigning Alberta Scotties Provincial Champions, so it will be great to play a team that you know is going to push you to play great right at the start of the season." "It will be fun to get back into game mode with the team and start our competition mindset." Kyler Kleibrink supports Harty at third stones with Joshua Kiist at second and Kurtis Goller at lead.
"We were all pretty successful throughout juniors, and were consistently in the race for playoffs and bonspiel championships," Kleibrink added. Kleibrink and Harty came together in 2015, playing one season together, then after a year apart, they rejoined in 2017 and have been playing together since. "In our last year of juniors we had a very successful season, going undefeated in the Alberta Junior Curling Tour season, winning four events up until the Provincial Final," continued Kleibrink. "After seeing that sort of success in juniors, we were looking to keep it rolling into men's events." For the young team, the experience of playing against Alberta's best teams was an eye-opening experience as they found themselves grinding on the Alberta Tour circuit. "We quickly learned that there were no easy games and just how much more precise you need to be in Men's," said Harty. The team finished last season with a 38-16 record, winning four events on Tour including the College Clean Restoration Classic in Saskatoon and currently sit 26th overall on the World Curling Federation World Team Rankings. Related: > Harty Wins 2019 College Clean Restoration Curling Classic "In order to build on last year's success, we have added two coaches to our team, Shannon Kleibrink and Heather Rogers, both successful players and coaches in the sport," continued Harty. "They are forcing us to improve on aspects that otherwise, we may have never focused on. Another step that will help us get to the next level is playing against the top teams more frequently." Harty is looking forward to a season where they will get the chance to face off against the likes of Kevin Koe and Brendan Bottcher, regulars in the Grand Slams and major tour events along with their peers on the Alberta Tour. With many major events cancelled or postponed, we've seen the schedule restructured, and new events added to fill the gap, including the ATB Banff Classic in October and the ATB Okotoks Classic in November. "Through it all, we are lucky to have the support that we do. Our sponsors continue to support us and are the reason why we can compete at all of these events." "Two of these events were started by Ben Hebert and Team Koe, to help fill in the holes in the season." "By playing against teams like Bottcher, Koe, Sturmay, Sluchinski and Appelman we are forced to bring our best each game and can measure up to them and see which areas that we need to improve." Harty will open their season at the McKee Homes Fall Classic in Airdrie on Thanksgiving weekend. "We are extremely excited for each event this season, as it is looking like we will have six provincial calibre events before we get to provincials." |
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Matt Dunstone (Photo: Curling Canada) and his Winnipeg-based squad begin play at the CO-OP Tour Challenge in Nisku, Alta.
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