McClelland rink ready to rock

John McClelland is hoping to lead his team to the Brier in Edmonton after a year of tragedy. The Zone play downs, take place at the Granite Club this weekend. Photo by Chris Dawson.

It’s been a year of adjustment on the pebbled ice for North Bay skip John McCelland. The North Bay curler has been to a couple of Briers in the past (as a second), but he hasn’t skipped competitively since 1997.

“Last time I skipped there was, never mind no 4 rock rule, there was no 3 rock rule, so it’s pretty easy to stand at the other end as a second to say he should play that, he should play that, but now that you’re in the position to have to do its been a lot of learning for me, re-learning the game I guess,” said McClelland.

McCelland is the team’s new skip, while Derek Desilets moves into McClelland’s old position at second. Gerry Cantin is the lead and his son Greg is the third.

The North Bay team has qualified for 4 of 5 events they’ve been to including a quarterfinal birth at the Challenge Casino de Charlevoix world curling tour event in Quebec City,

“It’s been a year of building, we’ve got a new guy on our team, probably slightly better attitude and just getting used to changes,” said Greg Cantin.

“You know Johnny skipping, learning the game, building, we didn’t start out that strong, we’ve done okay but again you know, just getting better and better as you go along.

“Fortunately because Johnny and I are good friends and we’ve played together for a while, I’ve played third for him in other spiels and events so we work pretty well together. The team is a little more, we decide things together now, whereas in the past with previous skips it was his way or the highway or more of a one man direction, it’s more of a team attitude here, we work well together.”

Dealing with Tragedy
But the biggest adjustment for this team has been off the ice. In late January when the team was heading to a curling event in Sudbury, tragedy struck. The team was involved in a three car accident which claimed the life of their well known skip Scott Patterson.

Returning to the Curling rink again this fall was a tough decision for the team as they still deal with the loss of a great friend and teammate.

“It’s been a whacky year, it was hard at first,” Greg Cantin admits.

”When we first went out and saw players and friends of his and ours and the first few events were tough but there was lots of support, you know, people don’t take us lightly and we are a different team than we were then and as far as competitiveness, people playing against us, it’s the same they still want to beat us, with or without him and we are okay now I think we are moving on that’s all you can do.”

While the emotional pain was extreme so was the physical road to recovery for John, Greg and Gerry.

The trio suffered a variety of injuries from the crash. For some that meant days and months of rehabilitation.

John McClelland credits a local physiotherapy clinic for getting the team back on the ice.

“None of it would be possible without the help from Symetrics,” McClelland insists.

The McClelland rink is one of 8 local teams hoping to move on past the Zone play downs, which take place at the North Bay Granite Club on the weekend.

McClelland is confident this team has what it takes to make a third appearance at the Brier.

“We have every intention of giving it our all, and if we catch a few breaks along the way there’s no reason why we can’t make it to the Brier in Edmonton in March,” said McClelland.

While the team is still trying to create a new identity, Greg Cantin says their former skip will always be part of their North Bay team.

“We’d like to be our own team but we are always going to still be the Scott Patterson rink.”