Representing his country and getting a chance to do it in Canada is something Sault Ste. Marie’s Brad Jacobs wont take for granted.
Just weeks after Jacobs won his second Canadian men’s curling title, the local product and his Alberta-based curling team are gearing up for the World Men’s Curling Championship in Moose Jaw, Sask.
The nine-day event opens Saturday.
“I’ve only played in one of these things and it was at home in Victoria in 2013. I’ll never forget that,” Jacobs said. “A lot of people have come up to me and said, ‘Oh, it's too bad you guys don't get to go on a big long trip, see somewhere fancy and experience something new.’ My response to that is, I wouldn't want to be anywhere else but in Canada.”
“I’m not going to look at it that way at all,” Jacobs added. “Anytime you can have the crown behind you can definitely create an advantage. I’m just looking forward to throwing on the maple leaf at home.”
The opportunity to represent his country at a world championship comes after the Jacobs rink beat Matt Dunstone’s Manitoba-based rink in the Montana’s Brier final in Kelowna earlier this month.
It was the second Brier title for the Sault native.
“I got home and laid low, tried to recover as best I could. We all did,” Jacobs said of reflecting on the win in Kelowna. “It was a long week. It was a grind.”
“The biggest thing I feel is validated,” Jacobs added. “Everything felt earned and deserved. All the hard work we put in, the hard conversations we had as a team to try to improve, I feel like our team has been getting stronger by the month since we formed.”
“To win the way we did, four elimination games against the best teams in Canada and, even reflecting on the final game, we weren’t in the lead in the final until the last rock was done,” Jacobs also said. “That’s why you saw so much emotion come out of all of us.”
“It’s hard to win the Brier. I’ve proven that. It only took 12 years between Brier wins,” Jacobs joked.
The Jacobs rink, which includes third Marc Kennedy, second Brett Gallant, lead Ben Hebert, and alternate Tyler Tardi, is in the midst of their first season together after Kennedy, Gallant, and Hebert left skip Brendan Bottcher at the end of last season.
For the newly-formed Jacobs rink, the team has come together well throughout the season.
“It’s been quite a journey with these guys,” Kennedy said. “My past experience with Brad certainly helped, knowing what he would bring to the team and then trying to mix my history with Brad and the current team and the stability we had with Brett, Ben, and Paul.
“We saw it and how it might work and I think it’s worked better than we anticipated,” Kennedy added. It probably took a little time to get going, but right from the beginning, the foundation was created with practice habits and work ethic.”
Kennedy added that he feels as though Jacobs “pushed the envelope” to help the team to a higher level.
“He really led by example with just how hard he worked to try to fit into the group and be our leader,” Kennedy said. “He got to a point with this team where we were ready to go through a wall for him. That evolution, that trust in each other, we were really out there trying to win for each other. That’s an extra level of strength when it comes to a team. We got to that point at the Brier.”
Gallant added that he felt Jacobs was going to be a good fit prior to the news becoming official that they were teaming up with the Sault skip.
“Playing against Brad for a number of years, I never really liked playing against him because he was always a gamer,” Gallant said. “He always seemed to get up for those big ones and just his intensity and what he brought as a skip, you knew you were in for a tough game.”
“Even before we hit the ice this year, I knew he was going to be a great fit for our team,” Gallant added. “When we started playing our first few games together, his leadership and his style was just a perfect fit.”
Hebert added that the team is “pretty grateful to have him.”
“Brad never asks us to do anything that he doesn’t do and do as good or better than all of us,” Hebert said. “(Jacobs) is a big time gamer, competitive, fiery, awesome shooter. He’s a great human being, a good family man, and fits in well with our team.”
Hebert also called the veteran skip “hilarious.”
“I like to have a good sense of humour and Brad’s hilarious,” Hebert said. “Keeps me on my toes. I have to stay sharp. I don’t want to give him the funniest guy on the team (title) just yet, but he’s right up there. He keeps things loose, but super serious as well.”
Team Jacobs opens the world championship on Saturday with a pair of games. The team will face Japan in the opening draw, which kicks off at 4 p.m. Sault time, before facing Germany in the evening draw, which is at 9 p.m. Sault time.