1999 Brier
SLAM! Sports
SLAM! Curling
1999 BRIER
ON THE ROCKS
INTERACTIVE
ALSO ON SLAM!
Last local hero bows out
Iskiw outlasted Hunka
Oh, the Tankard's still up for grabs and the brewery-sponsored national bonspiel will continue to hog the Skyreach Centre spotlight for two additional days.
But as far as local participation is concerned, it's a fait accompli.
When Nova Scotia third Blayne Iskiw lobbed his final stone during yesterday's 5-4 tiebreaker loss to Russ Howard's New Brunswick foursome, the final on-ice Edmonton connection tumbled by the wayside. Barring, that is, a TSN hand-held cameraman of local heritage or some other nondescript tramping up and down the sideline.
The locally-born youngster, who throws third rocks for Paul Flemming's surprising Bluenose foursome, outlasted the Ottewell's Kenny Hunka by a full 14 hours.
"Yeah, I guess we did,'' smiled Iskiw, "but we got off to a good start ... and that helped us out a lot.''
Flemming's rink did burst from the gate at 2-0 to set the tone for a 7-4 round robin and a top-five finish.
"But today, I guess it just wasn't there.'' muttered Iskiw, although no apologies were necessary.
"First team out of Nova Scotia to make the playoffs, I believe, since '81 when they started the playoff system. We're proud of that. We struggled a little bit the last two days.
"But Paul played great all week. He got us here.''
Iskiw's slow-finish reference could be traced to a 10-5 setback at the hands of Hunka that completed the round-robin.
But someone evidently had to pay the price for the local people's choice to at least leave 'em laughing.
"Kenny had a tough week, but he played great against us. He gave us trouble. If we would have beaten him, we wouldn't have been in this (tiebreaker) situation. I owe him one.'' stressed Iskiw.
"I don't know when I'll get him, but I'll get him.''
FRIENDS AND RELATIVES
Iskiw estimated there were about 50 friends and relatives in the pews among about 4,000 who turned out for the tiebreaker. The announced morning crowd was 11,631, but suspicion has it that someone was counting toes. The majority must have been otherwise detained across the way, at the Sportex, still sipping sloosh at the Spirit of Edmonton Brier breakfast.
"All my family was here and some of my closest friends skipped work. I'm not going to name names 'cause they'll get into trouble,'' confided Iskiw.
"Even people I don't really know treated us just like we're from here.''
In his case he is, but the curling public adopted the entire rink as if they were prodigal sons as well - Flemming, second Andrew Dauphinee and lead Tom Fetterly.
The 21-year-old's planning on having the chaps over to his parents' house today to watch this afternoon's semi-final.
For perogies?
"We'll see what mom cooks.''
Iskiw wound up in Halifax after meeting his girlfriend Beth Roach during the 1997 World Junior Championship at Karuizawa, Japan, where he captured a bronze medal as the second on Ryan Keane's Canadian champion rink. Roach played on the junior ladies team.
Last fall he moved to the Maritimes and enrolled at Dalhousie University in kinesiology - the field of sports medicine.
Roach's brother played with Fetterly, which led to Iskiw having conversations with Flemming about joining the rink.
"It's just turned out awesome,'' grinned Iskiw.
"I'll be back next year and there's a good chance we'll be back (in the Saskatoon Brier). Paul's just the perfect guy to play with. I couldn't ask for a better guy.''
As a youngster he also played baseball competitively. He was the catcher for the local AAA midget team that lost to Winnipeg in the Western Canadian final three years ago, but he won the batting title, hitting .483.
"For my size, I don't hit as many home runs as I should,'' admitted the stocky six-foot, 200-pounder. "I want to get back into (senior) baseball this summer - either here or out there. Where, I guess, depends on a job. It's all up in the air right now.
WILLING TO WORK!
"If you could put it in the paper that if there any opportunities for a job, they could give me a call ...''
Happy to oblige.
"I'm into sports medicine and the sports performance field, so I'm going to look for something along those lines - Club Fit kind of thing,'' explained Iskiw, who eventually hopes to become a sports doctor. "Sooner or later, yeah, I know a couple of Trappers' people. I'll be around somewhere, I just don't know where.''
As a catcher, the Trap would be an ideal fit.
After all, there are other endeavours to pursue - now that the Edmonton Brier is officially over.