Emerald Park area curler skips Team British Columbia
Jamie Schneider wasted no time jumping out of the frying pan and back into the fire.
Fresh off coaching his son Catlin’s British Columbia rink at the 2024 national men’s curling championship, which wrapped up Sunday in Regina, Jamie spoke to Grasslands News on Monday from Fredericton, N.B.
There, he is serving as coach for the University of Regina’s entry at the national collegiate curling championship, which began Tuesday and wraps up Saturday.
Just a few days earlier though he was behind the proverbial bench as B.C. was eliminated from playoff contention at the Montana’s Brier with a 9-4 loss March 7 to Alberta’s Brendan Bottcher.
The loss marked the end of Catlin’s fourth Brier appearance, albeit his first as skip, as B.C. finished with a 4-4 record. That record was good for fifth place out of nine teams in pool A, with the top three teams advancing to playoffs.
Catlin grew up near Emerald Park and previously played second for Saskatchewan under three different skips at Briers in 2017, 2020 and 2022.
One of those skips, Colton Flasch from the 2022 team, played third this year for import skip Mike McEwen and the Saskatchewan rink that lost 9-5 in Sunday’s final to Brad Gushue and Team Canada.
“Flasch last year made the decision he didn’t want to skip again and that’s where Mike McEwen came into the mix,” Jamie said Monday. “So Catlin said ‘if that’s what you’re choosing to do then I’m going to move on,’ because Flasch and the (Marsh) twins weren’t splitting up because they’re good friends.”
From there Jamie said, Catlin reconnected with Jason Ginter of B.C.’s 2023 Brier entry and learned Ginter’s team was looking for a new skip after Jacques Gauthier departed to play second for Alberta’s Kevin Koe.
Jamie, who grew up at Kronau and now resides in the RM of Edenwold near Emerald Park, said Catlin and Ginter had known each other since their university days.
The new-look quartet, with Ginter at third, Sterling Middleton at second and Alex Horvath at lead, qualified for the Brier after winning the B.C. provincial playdown.
Onward to Regina, Team Schneider went 0-2 to open the Brier before winning games against Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick and Manitoba’s Reid Carruthers. They then lost to Northern Ontario and beat Yukon before the loss to Bottcher.
“These guys are getting better,” Jamie said, summing up the week for B.C. “They placed rocks fairly well, they scored fairly high percentages, and now they just need the experience to get through every game like Brad (Gushue) does and figure out a way to keep teams from scoring and figure out ways to score more multiples.
“There honestly isn’t that great of a difference in the guys,” said Jamie, who skipped Saskatchewan’s rink at the 1990 Brier and coached the province’s entry in 2022 as well. “I think our team stats were fifth but we were seventh or eighth in the standings. They’re understanding the game and playing really well. Now they just need to find that next level.”
As a result of winning the Brier, Gushue’s rink won the $108,000 champion’s purse, will represent Canada at this year’s world men’s curling championship in Switzerland, and also earned a spot in next year’s national Olympic curling trials.
The winner of that event will go on to represent Canada at the 2026 Olympic Games in Italy.
