News General News

John Morris isn’t quite sure how much longer he’ll be able to curl competitively.

That’s one reason why the 37-year-old Morris reunited with Jim Cotter’s crew this season to make a serious push towards the 2017 Canadian Olympic Trials.

Flashback to 2013 when Morris parted ways with Kevin Martin, Marc Kennedy and Ben Hebert after a seven-year run that some consider the greatest curling team of all time having won nine Grand Slam titles, two Briers, one world championship and an Olympic gold medal. Morris quickly latched on with the Vernon, B.C., team of Cotter, Tyrel Griffith and Rick Sawatsky and in a short period of time they established themselves as serious contenders by finishing runner-up at both the Olympic Trials and the Brier that season.

While that version of Team Morris lasted just the one year, the band is now back together and looking to rekindle the magic.

“We have an amazing dynamic with this team and to attempt another Olympic run knowing we have two years now rather than four months to make things happen was very motivating,” said Morris, who skips the team while throwing third stones. “I don’t know how many more years I’m curling for so to be able to play with guys you really enjoy playing with, really get along with and are great curlers, it’s hard to find that mix. That was pretty important for me at this stage.”

Morris’s previous team in Calgary split after last season with Carter Rycroft and Nolan Thiessen stepping back from the sport leaving Pat Simmons and himself as highly coveted free agents. Simmons and Morris decided to head in separate directions although both found new teams before the season even officially ended. Brendan Bottcher recruited Simmons to his Edmonton-based team while everything just seemed to align for Morris to re-join Cotter, whose third Ryan Kuhn, a WestJet pilot, decided to take a break from curling.

“We were very fortunate that John was available,” Cotter said. “We got talking how we’d throw back the band back together and I was super excited about it for sure. John’s a great guy.”

The success and chemistry they established during their previous year together played a crucial role in Morris’s decision.

“Jim, Rick, Tyrel and I have always been great friends. We played together three years ago and it went really well,” Morris said. “We made some really good progress in a very short amount of time. We went from about 13th in Canada to about second at the two biggest events of the season, the Brier and the Trials.”

Cotter added, “In a short period of time, in three months, next thing you know we’re in the Trials final there. It just seemed like a natural fit to join back and maybe felt like we had some unfinished business there.”

Also a major factor was Curling Canada had eased up on their residency restrictions since the team’s last go-round enabling Morris to remain in Alberta and not have to relocate to B.C. in order to be eligible for provincial playdowns.

“The fact you’re allowed one player from out of province, that made that transition easier this time,” Morris said. “The pieces just seemed to fall into place there and I’m really looking forward to the next couple seasons.”

Morris said it already feels awesome being back together and he’s pumped to see what the future holds for the team.

“These guys have just such great attitudes and they good natural curlers. We just have a really good dynamic,” he said. “I see a lot of teams, not in curling but in other sports, where you have four all-stars on a team and things just don’t click because you don’t have the right attitudes and people aren’t in the right roles. With us, this team, we really have a good fit.”

“It just feels very natural, we’re all very eager and committed, we work really well together, our chemistry is amazing and that can take a team a really long way and they can do a lot of really great things with that equation,” he added. “I’m looking forward to seeing what we can do.”

The immediate objective for Team Morris is to hit the road early and often to bank as many points as possible. Although they didn’t have any practice ice at home prior to the season, there’s no better substitution than actual playing time. The team competed in the Stu Sells Oakville Tankard last month in Ontario and finished runner-up to earn 50.563 points towards the World Curling Tour’s Order of Merit (OOM) and Canadian Team Ranking System (CTRS) standings.

“Definitely our goal for this year, early especially, is to just come up with a game plan, get back used to each other and try to gain as many points as we can and ultimately qualify for the Olympic Trials,” Cotter said. “It’s still early. There are lots of points out there. You just have to curl and win a lot of games.”

Team Morris is currently ranked 14th on the World Curling Tour’s OOM and seventh on the CTRS standings. Only last season’s Canada Cup winner and world champion Kevin Koe has qualified for the Olympic Trials and Team Morris is doing all it can to ensure the rink is in the running for one of the remaining eight spots.

“We’re really ramping it up,” Morris said. “This year and next year we’re giving it everything thing we’ve got. … We’re playing hard and trying to play in everything we can to get as many points as we can and get into a good standing on the Order of Merit and the CTRS.”

In the meantime, Morris already has one Olympic Trials berth locked up. He has teamed up with Rachel Homan on the mixed doubles circuit and successfully defended the Canad Inns Mixed Doubles Championship this past weekend to qualify for the Olympic Trials in that discipline.

Team Morris will play in the season-opening Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling event, the WFG Masters, Oct. 25-30 in Okotoks, Alta.