Kevin Koe puts together all-new lineup for next season
Calgary’s Kevin Koe will have a completely new squad in front of him when he hits the ice in the fall.
The four-time Brier champion has linked up with third Tyler Tardi, second Brad Thiessen and lead Karrick Martin for next season, Team Koe announced Friday.
With the end of the Olympic quadrennial, several top teams are retooling for the next cycle. Team Koe second John Morris plans to retire from men’s curling while lead Ben Hebert is joining provincial rival Brendan Bottcher. Third B.J. Neufeld has yet to announce his plans.
Koe has captured the Canadian men’s curling championship a record-tying four times: 2010, 2014, 2016 and 2019. He has also won four Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling men’s titles as a skip and claimed the Pinty’s Cup as the overall season champion in the GSOC series during the 2018-19 campaign.
Team Koe finished runners-up at the Brier in March.
Tardi, from Langley, B.C., skipped Canada to back-to-back world junior gold medals in 2018 and 2019. He made his Brier debut last year as the alternate for British Columbia.
Thiessen and Martin make the move south from Edmonton’s Team Bottcher where they played front-end positions side-by-side for a decade. After three consecutive silver medals, they captured the Brier in 2021. The pair also claimed three consecutive Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling men’s titles in 2019.
Koe will play his final event with his current lineup in the season-ending KIOTI Tractor Champions Cup, May 3-8, at the Olds Sportsplex in OIds, Alta.