SLAM! Curling
Mixed Champ.
COLUMNS
MIXED CHAMP.
ON THE ROCKS
INTERACTIVE
ALSO ON SLAM!
High Hopes for Howard
Can an Ontario import do what no New Brunswick rink ever has and win the Brier?
Not his new home ice in Moncton, nor the ice he grew up with in the small Ontario town of Midland.
Today Mr. Howard returns to championship ice - Brier ice, the place where he established himself as one of the world's best curlers.
He begins play in Edmonton in what will be his ninth Labatt Brier and his first as the skip for the team from New Brunswick.
The two-time Canadian and world champion moved to Moncton last year to take a job as director of golf for the new Royal Oaks Estates and Golf Club.
The move generated the biggest buzz not on the fairway but in curling clubs around New Brunswick.
He and a rink made up of Grant Odishaw, Rick Perron, Wayne Tallon and Jeff Lacey won the provincial title as predicted, advancing to the Brier.
What happens next is anyone's guess. Mr. Howard complained about ice conditions in the province throughout the season. He also points out that his team managed only
seven or eight games together before the playdowns.
"With very few games together, playing on ice we're not used to - I hate to make excuses, but it's not ideal," he says.
He believes his team was lucky to win the provincial title in Florenceville last month.
"I knew we had a good team, but in the back of my mind I knew we weren't prepared."
The people who know Mr. Howard best, though, don't seem worried.
"They're probably just getting into their groove," says an optimistic Jim Clark, who curled with Mr. Howard as a teenager.
"The question is, can they maintain the momentum in Edmonton?
"Russ will probably get off to a great start. The question will be whether the other guys can handle the attention and the distractions. That will be Russ's job - to manage the team's time."
Oddly enough, two of Mr. Howard's former teammates have different views on whether the skip can do it all by himself.
"I believe Russ can with bonspiels or the Brier or any major bonspiel," says Peter Corner, who played lead for him in the 1993 Brier and world championships.
"He's one of the few skips who can win an event by himself."
But Mr. Howard's brother Glenn, his mate in the 1987 and 1993 Brier and world championships, says, "Russ would be the first to tell you he can't win by himself. He needs three players firing on all eight cylinders."
The bottom line? Mr. Clark predicted the Howard rink will make it at least as far as the semi-finals. Mr. Corner foresees a finish in the top four, which would probably translate into a playoff berth.
If the Howard rink does win the Brier, it would mark the first time a New Brunswick foursome has ever won the national title.
The real question for the skip, though, is about what happens after this year's Brier: If he doesn't bring it home to Moncton this year, will he remain a contender in years to come?
For a detailed look at the career of one of Canada's best curlers - and where he goes from here - see today's New Brunswick Reader.