Registered: Dec 2005
Location: St. Thomas, North Dakota
Posts: 2613

It is outlandish for me (or anyone) to assume the lives being led by others. To play the game of Who Will Be Chosen To Be Semipros, however, forces us to make some assumptions. At times, they are horrible and too personal and way too private assumptions.

To be one of the Chosen 16, curlers will be asked to dedicate their lives to a new extent. John Benton just began using a new term and it is really accurate: Immersion. Going beyond dedication that saw practice rocks, openness to coaching and aggressive schedules, immersion will see curlers living in Canada for weeks at a time and living near training centers so that they have the advantage of practicing with some type of coach.

How audacious will we need to be to start guessing who will be in the Chosen 16? Let's start by invading the private lives of the male skips:

I don't see Pete Fenson applying to be one of the two funded skips. His business is important to him. His family is still relatively young and he seems to enjoy being around them a lot. He is not young enough to aim for 2 Olympic cycles.

I do see Heater as applying. I don't think that his career is the driving influence in his life. I see Craig Brown as being in a similar situation and Todd Birr. Face Shuster has openly delayed the start of any career in favor of his competitive curling dream.

Brady Clark, on the other hand, may be our strongest skip if you ask those who put some importance on statistics. I don't see him applying! He might be asked to relocate. He might be asked to take long leaves of absence from his very good job.

See what I mean? To guess who might be on the Chosen 16, you have to make assumptions about peoples' lives.

If you turn to the Women's side, the invasion of privacy gets even worse. Which skip might be looking to start a family? Whose husband might not be supportive? Who would relocate at a high cost to their family?

Still, I doubt that many of the potential applicants will take much offense. We've said things about Craig Brown that are a lot worse than, "His job and young family will not preclude him from applying to be on the HPP team." So have at it. Toss out some thoughts. Just remember that the successful applicants must be ready to be "immersed" in competitive curling.

By the way, adopting the new HPP is far from a reality. Governance changes and leadership changes can throw up unexpected changes. This is just spring speculation.

Ben Tucker

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Registered: Jan 2012
Location:
Posts: 136

To me this seems like a perfect scenario for the young and not yet career or family focused curlers to build a new team from scratch over the next four years. Anyone over the age of 32 need not apply (because we can't have any 40 year olds on the 2022 chosen team). Maybe if we make it a reality TV show on TruTV, they can all live together in a tiny apartment in St. Paul.

Only partially in jest

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Registered: Feb 2013
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Posts: 17

Immersion...What is "Coach" John Benton's record in world level events?

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Registered: Dec 2005
Location: St. Thomas, North Dakota
Posts: 2613

VAcurler, I'm having lots of trouble seeing such a youthful team on the Men's side. Since Plys aged out, our Junior Men haven't exactly been lighting it up. Dropkin was pretty good and I'm guessing that's where you'd have to start. Maybe Plys and Dropkin together, but they didn't light it up at the World University Games either. Still, I see your logic. The WUGS team of Plys/Dropkin/Beighton/???...was the 4th one Zezel? Not a bad team and certainly one that could grow.

It would be a decent start, but I can't see you telling Heater "Thanks, but no thanks".

Carnival does throws bit of a cheap shot towards Benton. Not that I'm opposed to throwing cheap shots at Benton. Done a few myself. Still, I just attributed the new word to him. I did not proclaim the plan foolproof nor even that it is his plan. Immersion will be the new catch word. It's a step above Dedicated.

Ben Tucker

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