SANDRA M STANWAY
Brooks Bulletin
There was loud whooping, applauds and relief from spectators and cheering and yelling from the Brooks Composite High School boys curling team who earned the provincial gold making school history.
“That’s gold! That’s gold! We did it,” yelled the team who hugged each other after the match.
On Saturday the BCHS team defeated Medicine Hat High 6-4 for the gold medal, a goal the team set three years ago.
By the fourth end Brooks was down 4-0 but there was a break and a turnaround.
“After the fourth end we just had a reset and grouped ourselves together,” said third Justin Mrazek.
“We came out strong and stole four straight ends, which brought us the win.”
“Honestly, at the start of the game I was thinking I was ready to go home, thinking like, oh yeah, ready to lose, ready to take a second but after the fourth end break we just had a full reboot,” said skip Jacob Falkenburg.
Second Micah Fontaine couldn’t look at the last shot.
“I was closing my eyes with my head on my broom and then I just saw the one it hit go through the hole and our rock was still sitting there on the top four foot, and I just couldn’t believe it,” he said.
The host Brooks team, reached the final round after going 4-0 in the round robin and defeating Didsbury High School 3-1 in the semi finals.
Last month Didsbury defeated Brooks at the South Central Zones to advance as the zone representative while the host team Brooks had an automatic entry.
The semi final game was a hard match for Brooks as the teams are evenly talented.
Falkenburg said he would have been fine with a win or a loss in the final match.
“It was really just a more relaxed game. Not nervous.”
He said whether or not BCHS had lost the final match it showed that they played well.
“We showed that we deserved to be here,” he said.
The provincials mark the end of the current BCHS team. Falkenburg will graduate this year from BCHS.
Lead Jesse Elsbett who attends BCHS, while St. Joseph’s Collegiate students Fontaine and Mrazek will pick up Payton Wagner for next season.
“I’m just really happy to end on a win because that was the three year plan. That was the whole deal when we started this team that by the third year we want to win provincials.”
He said winning the school’s first curling gold was “pretty cool.”
