Ontario’s Scott McDonald feels well-prepped to compete in Brier debut

“I think I would place us in the dark-horse category,” McDonald said Friday after a practice session.

“We’ve played a lot of the top teams and we’re competitive against the top teams. They know who we are and we know who they are. It’s just a matter of playing well in this environment.”

The 16-team main draw opens Saturday afternoon in Brandon. Toronto’s Epping and Edmonton’s Brendan Bottcher met Friday night in a wild-card game to determine the 16th team.

Curling now dominated by a handful of teams, it’s a novelty when new faces appear among the elite.

McDonald pushed into the top-10 of the men’s World Curling Tour rankings earlier this month with a 54-26 record.

The skip says planning and building their inaugural season began in April, 2018, when the four men determined they could be a good fit.

“At the beginning of the year, our goal was to get to the Brier,” McDonald said. “It wasn’t to finish second or third (at provincials).

“I’d finished third last year. It’s not a fun position to be in. That was motivating in some respects.

“We put a lot of work in in the summer to make sure we were ready to compete come September.”

They played nine tour events their first two months together.

Winning the Gatineau Curling Challenge on arena ice in October helped McDonald qualify for the Boost National Grand Slam in December, where they didn’t make playoffs but still gained valuable experience.

They went undefeated at Ontario provincials and thus feel battle-hardened heading into Brandon.

“It gave us some experience where we didn’t have before,” McDonald said. “We’d all played in big games in different capacities, but obviously the final to get to the Brier is the biggest game we’ve ever played in.

“We know we can come into a setting like this where the pressure is on and perform,” he continued. “That’s important for a team that doesn’t have as much experience as the top four or five teams in the field that have been here multiple times and know what to expect in this environment.”

McDonald, 32, is an insurance claims adjuster. Forget, 27, is a residence co-ordinator at Queen’s University and Chadwick, 28, is a shift manager for an industrial air handling company.

Beuk, 35, is a psychometrist.

“The easiest way to explain it is I try to infer cognitive abilities through behaviour,” the vice explained.

“It’s generally people who have had some kind of brain injury. I have them do paper-and-pencil tests for the most part and answer questions. Through that you can determine the level of their abilities.

“For the most part, it’s people who have suffered injuries in car accidents. That’s the big one. But it’s broad range of anybody who is suffering from cognitive limitation.”

With six university degrees between them, including Beuk’s two post-graduate degrees, Team Ontario is a brainy bunch.

“We’ve got a lot of brains on the team,” Beuk acknowledged. “Sometimes the key is shutting off the brains for a few seconds.”

Beuk says he and his teammates grew up watching Ed Werenich, Howard and Wayne Middaugh win at the Brier.

Howard’s was the last Ontario team to claim a Canadian title in 2012 in Regina.

“I don’t think a lot of people are predicting that we’re going to be the favourites this week, so we get to play the underdog card a little bit,” Beuk said. “That takes some of the pressure off.”

Donna Spencer, The Canadian Press

by Canadian Press

Ontario’s Scott McDonald feels well-prepped to compete in Brier debut

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