CurlingZone: Mooibroek Gaining Experience Against World's Best

Whitby's Sam Mooibroek won 5-4 over Toronto's John Epping in Tuesday afternoon's HearingLife Tour Challenge Tier 2 draw.

Mooibroek's young team is making strides on the men's curling scene even if the results are hit and miss as the squad appears at bigger events, their debut at this year's Grand Slam Tour Challenge the next stop following last week's Players' Open in Dundas.

Mooibroek, third Scott Mitchell, second Nathan Steele and lead Colin Schnurr opened with two points against Epping, then added two more points in the third end for an early 4-1 lead. Epping fought back with a singl in the fourth, stole one in the fifth. Mooibroek and Epping traded singles, with the Slam-rookie skip holding hammer and a one-point into the eighth and final end.

The Whitby, Ont.-based crew is in its second season together. Mooibroek said he's relishing the opportunity for his up-and-coming side to play against top teams.

"We're showing ourselves we can compete at this level as well as showing the other teams," he said. "The more time you're around these top teams, you see how they do things, what they do, and try to take some of that for yourself and help yourself improve as well."

Losses at the Players' Open to Kevin Koe (7-6) and Yusuke Morozumi (6-5) went down to last rock. A 5-0 loss to Brendan Bottcher was followed by a 5-4 win over Riku Yanagisawa. Mooibroek won 6-4 in their final game over Daniel Hocevar to finish 2-3.

"I think the big thing for our team is noboby seems overly worried about who we're playing or anything like that," Mooibroek said. "There's no star-struck (moments like), 'Oh Brad Gushue is sitting next to me in the changeroom.' It's like, 'No, we belong here, let's go curl.'"

Mooibroek, 24, has had a busy season with six events so far, including an appearance in the final of the U25 NextGen Classic last month in Edmonton.

Team confidence is only building after wins over teams like Yanagisawa, now twice over Epping and Tanner Horgan so far this season.

"When you're sitting in that arena maybe in a semi or a final, you're not freaked out by who you're playing," Mooibroek said. "There's obviously going to be some stress from it being a playoff game but you're not worried about who you're playing. You're just going to play your own game."

The 16-team men's draw at the Grand Slam Tier 2 Tour Challenge has a $60,000 purse, with the champion also winning an expenses paid trip to compete at the Co-op Canadian Open in January.

"I think we definitely have high expectations of ourselves," he said of this season. "Right now in the world (rankings) we're sitting around 30th. I think if we can get close to top 20 and then obviously go into the Ontario Tankard with a legitimate chance to win it.

"I think not just believing in ourselves but having people see us as one of the teams who could definitely win it would definitely be a good goal for us."

The Ontario playdowns will begin Jan. 22 in Ingersoll.

"Making the Brier for Ontario is definitely our goal, Mooibroek said. "We've played every team who is going to be there. We've beat all of them at some point so we know it's winnable for us."

To top ↑