News Canadian Open

YORKTON, Sask. — Adam Casey and his Charlottetown rink have been putting in the work on the World Curling Tour this season and it’s paying off.

Casey, third Josh Barry, second Anson Carmody and lead Robbie Doherty became the first P.E.I. team to compete at a Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling event at the National last month and are now preparing for their second Slam at the Canadian Open.

Doherty said it’s a big step in helping to change the culture of curling back home as the province doesn’t have a guaranteed berth at the 2015 Brier and must compete in an additional four-team playdown to earn the final spot at the national tournament.

“Curling clubs everywhere are losing hundreds of members each so it’s slowly killing the sport back home,” he said. “Hopefully we can be that team that the younger kids can look up to and say that there is a chance. Hopefully we can be good role models and they can get an idea of the work that it really takes in today’s game to get near the top.”

The team has also been quite active as they just came together over the summer and needed to put in the extra effort to land spots in these big events. Prior to the start of the off-season, rumours were circulating that Mark Nichols was returning to Brad Gushue’s team in St. John’s, N.L., and Casey could be the odd man out. It was around that time Doherty and Carmody started formulating plans for the upcoming season and when the news came out that Casey was now a free agent, they made sure they would be the front-runner for his services.

“When the news broke of Nichols coming back to Newfoundland, we put the pieces together in our head, not necessarily with Casey but we knew something was going to happen if that option opened,” Doherty said. “Then when it happened obviously he was going to get a lot of phone calls that day. We’re from P.E.I. so Summerside to Charlottetown is a quick 45 minutes and I probably did it in about 25 minutes but I got up there in time. … We just talked about options and it went from there. It just snowballed.”

It hasn’t been easy for the team as they’ve had to fly out to all of their events so far and haven’t played a single game at home.

“It’s hard but when you do arrive it’s the extra pressure to perform well knowing that if you don’t you’re going to be stuck with a big bill,” Doherty said. “We just sort of made it work, budgeted where we could and again, put our big boy pants on and dealt with it.”

Team Casey has reached the final at three WCT events this year and received an invite to the National in Sault. Ste. Marie, Ont. They faced a tough round robin draw and finished with a 2-3 record but scored an impressive win over Team Brad Jacobs to stun the Olympic gold medallists in their hometown.

Doherty credits working with sports psychologist Anne Chouinard, who also coached LPGA golfer Lorie Kane, for helping the team mentally prepare heading into the big event and score that upset victory.

“She worked with us and got us mentally ready to rise up to the occasion and not to be intimidated by anybody,” Doherty said. “Her message was to take your place, you guys earned your spot to get there, it’s not a fluke, so get there, take your spot and don’t be scared of anybody and just do your normal routine and throw rocks.

“There are a lot of big differences at the Slams — the TV lights, the arena, the audience, etc. — but when it comes down to it, it’s just 135 feet throwing 40-pound rocks. That day I think we were a little sharper and we came out on top.”

The Canadian Open mixes it up with a triple knockout rather than a round robin but Doherty said the team is absolutely comfortable playing that format.

“Our provincial playdowns are triple knockout, a modified triple turned into a page playoff, so it’s good practise for that,” he said. “I like it because, our team in particular, we tend to perform really well under pressure. Every game is pressure, you’re either going to move on or fall back. I think that’s going to add a lot of intensity to the games and hopefully we’ll be able to come out with the same intensity every time and win three before we lose three.”