Erin Pincott’s wins and wounds provide vantage for pebbled-ice profundity, her thoughts shared during a month eagerly anticipated by Kamloops curling aficionados.
The Team Brown third spoke of nurturing love for the game when it feels unrequited, the hard-times devotion required in the wake of tormenting defeat, the faithfulness that preceded catharsis.
After back-to-back losses in B.C. Women’s Curling Championship finals — including the soul crusher that kept the beloved Kamloops Curling Club rink from competing on home ice in the national championship in 2023 — Team Brown prevailed over Victoria-based Team MacMillan last month in the provincial title tilt in Langley.
“It definitely feels like a bit of a weight lifted in a way, a sense of accomplishment after having the disappointment the last couple years and really continuing to work at it even after coming up short a couple of times,” said Pincott, noting it felt exorcising to trump MacMillan, the team that had Brown’s number in 2023 and 2024, albeit with a different skip (Clancy Grandy). “Curling sometimes feels tough. As much as you love it, sometimes it doesn’t love you back.”
With its first women’s provincial championship victory since 2020, Team Brown punched its ticket to the national Scotties Tournament of Hearts, which gets underway on Valentine’s Day in Thunder Bay, Ont. The tournament will mark the fourth Scotties appearance for Team Brown, but the third for lead Samantha Fisher, who was on curling hiatus when the rink claimed its only other women’s B.C. title in 2020.
“It’s been a long time since Corryn, Erin, and I won provincials together (2015 in the junior ranks), so to have that group hug again and know we did it — it was just awesome,” Fisher said. “The girls just had the best reaction and that really got my heart rate going.”
Team Brown fodder for Scotties analysts includes Corryn Brown skipping the squad while carrying her first child and lead Sarah Koltun — new to the team this season — helping the rink overcome demons en route to her 10th national championship appearance.
“I like to think one of my strongest aspects as an athlete is I’m a great teammate and I really tried to find out where I could support these girls and fill some missing gaps and try to get them to the next step because we all wanted to get there,” Koltun said.
Close-to-home storylines on the national curling scene this month are not exclusive to the women’s game.
The men’s national championship (the Montana’s Brier) is scheduled to get underway on Feb. 28 in Kelowna, a stone’s throw for Kamloops fans travelling to support snakebitten Sheriff Matt Dunstone.
Dunstone, Pincott’s significant other, appears poised to break through at the Brier, helming a Manitoba team that is thriving — ranked first in Canada and second in the world — since a shocking mid-season lineup change (parting ways with third B.J. Neufeld to reunite Brush Brothers E.J. and Ryan Harnden).
“We’re starting to go on stretches now, beating teams we’re going to want to beat at the Brier and the worlds, ultimately,” said Winnipeg-born Dunstone, a Kamloops resident since 2018. “We’re getting more and more confident every weekend.”
Having spoken to Dunstone following shattering Brier defeats in Kingston, Ont., in 2020, Calgary in 2021 and London, Ont., in 2023, I’ve heard the sound of sorrow and echoes of imbibing teammates in lonely dressing rooms.
Reward for unrequited love would taste sweet in the Little Apple, a sparkling Okanagan delight perhaps served best chilled in Tankard.
Meanwhile, the Holly Hafeli rink of the Kamloops Curling Club is the toast of junior curling in the province after dispatching another team (Ava Arndt) teeming with Kamloops representatives in the Under-20 B.C. Women’s Curling Championship final on Dec. 30 in Cloverdale.
Next up: A shot at national junior gold in March in Summerside, P.E.I.
The youthful Hafeli rink has dropped round-robin games to Team Brown at the past two women’s B.C. championships and fell short of the playoffs both years.
Earlier this month in Calgary, its TRU WolfPack iteration got a taste of gold medal game misery at the Canada West Curling Championships.
Similar and necessary lumps have been absorbed by Dunstone and Brown, tough love that can lead to gratifying redemption.
“I’m feeling old. Not going to lie,” Pincott said with a laugh when asked about the Hafeli rink nipping at its heels. “It feels like just yesterday that they were all in little rocks, shorter than me, and now they’re in university. They’re down here [at the KCC] just as much as we are, practising a ton, so it’s nice to see they’re putting in the work and it’s paying off.”