Recently disbanded Team Brown will be remembered among the greatest Kamloops curling rinks.
With a history of covering skip Corryn Brown, third Erin Pincott, and lead Samantha Fisher that dates back to the early 2010s (when they were Justin Bieber-loving teenagers), I’ve been looking forward to sharing a few words on my professional relationship with the team.
One thought stands out above the rest: They always picked up the phone.
Of course, the accomplishments on the ice are incredible, but Team Brown’s class in defeat and willingness to answer questions in the moments following soul-crushing losses are more endearing than any championship victory.
Skip Brown spoke to me while crestfallen on several occasions, including through tears after her team’s disheartening defeat to Sarah Wark of Abbotsford in the 2019 B.C. Women’s Curling Championship final in Quesnel.
Screening my call was the easy way out, but she had the guts to pull back the curtain and give readers a raw look at reality on the competitive curling circuit. Revenge on Wark in the 2020 provincial final in Cranbrook was sweet.
Fisher fell on the media sword in November in Halifax, plunking down for a Zoom interview and fighting off the frog in her throat while reflecting on the team’s early exit from the Canadian Olympic Trials. Perhaps some little girl out there saw that interview and learned how to lose with dignity.
No defeat was more agonizing than the loss to Clancy Grandy of Vancouver in the 2023 B.C. final in Chilliwack.
The Kamloops Curling Club quartet was catapulted into the throes of pebbled-ice despair after an extra-end setback that dynamited once-in-a-lifetime aspirations to compete on home ice at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts.
Pincott picked up my call, her anguish pouring through the phone and into public domain.
Readers and listeners found out exactly how much representing the city at nationals in her hometown meant to Pincott because she was brave enough to pick up the phone.
That type of rawness and vulnerability resonates — it made me proud to be a Kamloopsian — and it is why athletes should be interviewed after both triumph and defeat if willing.
Team Brown formed in 2006 (Brown, Pincott, Fisher and Sydney Fraser) and with various iterations compiled a résumé that includes three junior B.C. titles, one junior national championship, Canada Winter Games gold, two provincial women’s banners, four national Scotties Tournament of Hearts appearances, and Kamloops Sports Hall of Fame induction.
Ashley Klymchuk, Dezaray Hawes, Jennifer Armstrong, Sarah Koltun and Marika Van Osch had spells with the team, along with coaches Pat Cotter, Ken Brown, Allison MacInnes, and Jim Cotter.
The core three of Brown, Fisher and Pincott grew up together at the Kamloops Curling Club. They are family and this professional split — they each intend to explore curling options with new teams — is painful and delicate.
I know they’ll pick up the phone to let us know if there is green grass on the other side of Team Brown.