Defending champion Jeff Currie will have a new-look squad when his Men’s Major League of Curling rink hits the ice Wednesday night to start the 2012-13 season.
Currie, a two-time Major League title-holder, has added veterans Mike McCarville and Colin Koivula to that already boasted lead Jamie Childs.
Brothers Cody and Dylan Johnston, who have represented Northern Ontario at the national juniors and played alongside Currie last season, have left to form their own squad, joining forces with Travis Showalter and Jay Turner.
Also out of the loop is lead Mike Badiuk, who won’t curl the circuit this season.
Currie said the change in personnel was simply a matter of re-evaluating where he’s at in life.
“It’s a different squad, some unfamiliar faces on the team except for my lead,” he said. “But it feels good. I’m excited about our new team and our new sponsor, Thunder Bay Insurance.”
Not that either McCarville or Koivula are unfamiliar faces in the curling world.
McCarville was a long-time member of two-time Major League champ Joe Scharf’s rink, a team that came within a shot of making the Brier two winters ago, and a two-time Major League winner in his own right as Scharf’s reliable third.
Scharf has decided to take a break from competitive curling this year, and though he still plans to curl in the 37th MMLC season, it left McCarville, his brother-in-law, a free agent for at least the upcoming competitive season.
Scharf’s new teammates include past MMLC winner Trevor Clifford, Aaron Skillen and Bill Peloza.
As for Koivula, his 2012 team made a surprising run to the final of last year’s Courtesy Freight Northern Ontario Superspiel, edging American Tyler George to earn a berth at the Northern Ontario play-downs.
Adding them is a combination of experience and comfort, Currie said.
“The (new) guys are a little bit closer to my age,” said Currie, the 1996 Canadian junior champion. “I’m still the old man on the team, but we’re in similar spots in life and have similar goals.”
The MMLC will once again be a veritable who’s who of the local curling world, boasting several past champions in its ranks, including Art Lappalainene, the 2009 winner, Brian Burgess and former world champion Al Hackner.
Also back is Krista McCarville, one of two women’s teams competing this season; Ashley Kallos will skip the other women’s squad.
League co-chairman Pat Berezowski, who helped unveil a long overdue winner’s plaque on Monday morning at Port Arthur Curling Club, said the circuit has come full circle since the first shots were thrown in 1976.
The Men’s Major League of Curling has done a lot to improve the games of curlers in the city and surrounding areas, he added.
“We’ve got junior teams, men’s teams, senior teams and now two ladies teams that are competing. They’re all in preparation for the national and world stage,” Berezowski said. “It can’t be anything more than helpful for them."
Other skips making a run at this year’s title include Gary Weiss, Jeff MacDonald, Kurtis Byrd, Trevor Bonot, Brian Adams Jr., Mike Assad, Brennen Wark and Zach Warkentin.
Berezowski on Monday also unveiled details of the annual Courtesy Freight Northern Ontario Superspiel, which unlike previous editions no longer has an automatic sport in the Northern Ontario play-downs up for grabs on the men’s side, a decision made by the Northern Ontario Curling Association.
The event, one of seven on the second-year Great Lakes Curling Tour, will be held at PACC from Nov. 9 to 11.
