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Moskowy pumped to play in hometown Brier in Regina

Fun fact: There was a point in Braeden Moskowy’s life when he didn’t actually like curling.

Cue the shock and awe as the Regina native had played just about every other sport growing up — hockey, basketball, football, etc. — but curling wasn’t even on his radar. Although his dad Kelly curled competitively in provincial playdowns, the younger Moskowy found the sport boring and was forced to watch when he was dragged to the rink.

Funny how life turns out. Moskowy, who throws third for Manitoba’s Reid Carruthers, is now beaming with excitement for the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity of playing in a hometown Brier.

“Not only is having the Brier in your hometown pretty rare but to qualify and play in it is amazing,” Moskowy said during a phone interview last week. “It’s one of those things that’s probably on every curler’s bucket list but I don’t think a ton of guys actually get to experience it. Just to be able to play in front of all my family and friends is going to be amazing and something I’ll definitely cherish for a long time.”

Watching his father play lead for Team Saskatchewan and skip Scott Bitz in the 2002 Brier in Calgary was the moment that everything changed and set Moskowy on his curling trajectory.

“I remember I didn’t even watch his provincial final,” Moskowy said. “I was at the outdoor hockey rink playing hockey with my friends and I found out afterwards that they had won, like, ‘OK, great.’ I didn’t really realize what a big deal it was.

“I went to the Brier in Calgary, kind of got dragged along again, my sister and I. My aunt took care of us all week. I remember walking in there that first time and I’ll never forget it. Just the feeling, the atmosphere in the Saddledome, 15,000 people, it was at that time the biggest Brier of all time. They broke the attendance record. I was hooked instantly.”

Moskowy finished out the hockey season and then went all-in with curling. His grandfather, who managed a curling rink in Regina, would duck out of work to pick him up after school and bring him over to hone his skills.

“He would work and I would sneak off to one of the end sheets that was open and I would throw rocks until Mom or Dad got off at 5 or 5:30 and then they’d pick me up from there,” Moskowy said. “I did that pretty much all winter and eventually ended up getting onto a team and as they say the rest is history.”

It was all alone on that sheet where Moskowy pretended to be Bitz or Pat Simmons when he threw rocks across the ice and his Brier dreams began.

“Scotty was 27 or 28 when he skipped Sask at that 2002 Brier in Calgary and he was just a stallion,” Moskowy said. “Good-looking guy, could just throw bombs down the ice and was cool as a cucumber under pressure. He was instantly one of my curling heroes and a guy I looked up to tremendously.”

“I remember going down to the rink not long after I started and I slid with my broom pretty much just off the ice like Pat Simmons and Scotty Bitz did,” he added. “That’s how I slid for the first few years of my career. I eventually put it on my back but Pat Simmons, Scott Bitz those were the guys when I was throwing rocks or practising by myself I was [them] and I had a shot to win the game every time I threw a rock.”

The 27-year-old will now be competing in his third career Brier — after representing Saskatchewan in 2013 and Manitoba in 2015 — and is hoping to channel some of that hometown energy that worked so well for Brad Gushue last year when he captured the title with the crowd on his side in St. John’s, N.L.

“Other than when we’re playing Saskatchewan, I hope we have a lot of that local support and we’re almost like a second home team there for the people of Saskatchewan,” Moskowy said. “Hopefully we can win a few games early and get some fans behind us. It doesn’t hurt that Reid won the world championship with Jeff Stoughton in Regina in 2011. I’m sure there are a lot of people in Regina who are big fans of Reid and hopefully that’ll carry over and just create a bit more of a home atmosphere for us this week.”

Kirk Muyres, who throws second for Saskatchewan’s Steve Laycock, said it’ll be neat for the fans to have two teams to cheer for.

“It’ll bring another unique dynamic to the event,” said Muyres, who won the 2011 Canadian junior championship with Moskowy. “He’s going to have a ton of support there. We’re going to have a Team Saskatchewan but we’re also going to have an adopted Team Saskatchewan in Team Manitoba because of Braeden. I think it’s going to add a really cool atmosphere in the building and Braeden is going to have one of the times of his life.”

Moskowy is counting on the support from his family and friends but he wouldn’t be surprised if they’ll be sporting their true colours.

“They’ve been great about it but I was joking that we ordered them some Manitoba gear,” Moskowy said. “Underneath they’ll probably have their Saskatchewan Roughriders gear or something like that.”

Muyres suggested a compromise: half-and-half shirts.

“It would be awesome if we could play in the Brier final against them and half the people have the halfway shirts,” Muyres said with a laugh.

Moskowy has been focused on the Brier even since winning provincial playdowns last month, which is a feat unto itself in Manitoba given the talent depth and little margin for error in the double knockout preliminary stage. Team Carruthers didn’t miss a beat finishing the Viterra Championship with an unblemished 7-0 record, however, when Mike McEwen made his return in the final after spending most of the tournament in a hospital due to chickenpox, it nearly threw them off their game.

“Honestly, it blew my hair back,” Moskowy said. “We got out there 25 minutes before the game and Mike is just sitting there stretching and we’re like, ‘What in the hell is going on here?’ I never expected to see him out there in a million years. It actually never even crossed my mind.

“I saw he didn’t play Sunday morning in the semi and I was like, OK yeah, he’s not playing. So when I saw him sitting out there I was thinking, wait, is this like a decoy? Is he actually going to practise or is he going to sit on the bench and just wanted to watch the game? Then he starts throwing stones and I’m like maybe he’s playing lead and calling the game. It was a million different thoughts and whatnot going through my mind at the same time.”

Team Carruthers came together and refocused to get back on track after that curveball revelation.

“We had a quick meeting and said, ‘Let’s just do our thing, let’s not worry, who cares what position he’s playing,’” Moskowy said. “Obviously, you never want to see a guy not be able to curl. He’s one of the best players in the world. If you’re going to win you always want to beat the best team. He wasn’t at 100 percent but he played great and made a lot of shots for them.

“I’ve always had a lot of respect for Mike. To put himself out there in an extremely vulnerable position, he still wasn’t feeling good and hadn’t thrown a rock in almost a week, so for him just to be out there was great to see.”

After taking the following day off, it was right back to business preparing for the Brier. Moskowy explained once the team missed out on going to the Winter Olympics, the Brier became their premier target.

“Obviously we wanted to represent Canada at the Olympics but this was pretty much 1A and 1B for our goals through the year,” he said. “Once the Olympics didn’t work out, we took some time, felt sorry for ourselves and then we got right back to work. This was 1B for us for sure and we’re thrilled to go to the Brier.”

Team Carruthers begins its Brier quest Saturday playing P.E.I. in the opening draw.