Cheering for Morris, who previously had competed at provincials in Woodstock
By Mark Schadenberg
You would have to be a tremendous curler to represent three different
provinces at The Brier.
You would have to be a terrific person to stand through six identical
interviews conducted by Mark Schadenberg.
John Morris fits both categories as he lost Sunday in the Canadian
men’s curling finals 10-5 to Kevin Koe (Pat Simmons has been a top rung player
for many years, plus Carter Rycroft who previously competed for about eight years
with the great Kevin Martin, and Nolan Thiessen) of Alberta. Morris, who has
previously worn the jersey for Ontario (Tankard champ in 2002), Alberta and now
British Columbia is a life-long curler and thereby wears the personality expected
from a top-notch athlete who is both humble (not really modest though) and very
confident.
Losing to Kevin Koe would have been quietly quite difficult (emotions must
be hidden, you know) for Morris as he played with (this particular) Koe (not Jamie) a few
years ago for three seasons, but has also been on teams with Martin (see:
Rycroft), and won an Ontario title with Joe Frans, Craig Savill and Brent Laing
back in 2002.
Morris would always be calm under pressure as he is also a two-time world
champion as a junior competitor (1998 and 1999), an Olympic gold medallist and
2008 world champ (both with Martin), and Brier finalist as Ontario skip in 2002
with a loss to Randy Ferbey in the finale.
John Morris grew up in the Ottawa area (Wikipedia says he was born in
Winnipeg) in the pressure cooker of curling as his father Earle Morris was an
Ontario champ in 1985.
Earle Morris is currently preparing for the world championships as a
coach. The worlds begin for women on March 15 in Saint John, New Brunswick and
Earle is the coach for Rachel Homan’s Ottawa foursome (Pictured at bottom).
Me & John
Getting back now to my tale of me and John Morris (left in photo).
The first time I met him was at the provincial Tankard in Woodstock in
2001. I still have a copy of Morris versus Wayne Middaugh on VHS. The reason I
saved the tape? I’m the play-by-play guy.
Moving forward, I would also work for Rogers TV at the provincials in
Whitby, Mississauga, Owen Sound and Guelph. On those occasions as show host one
of my duties to promote the day’s broadcasts (afternoon and evening draws) was
to do live remote ‘hits’ on the program Daytime for six different communities
all in one hour. Yes, six identical interviews with six different stations
(London region, K-W, Toronto, Durham Region, Barrie area, and Ottawa) all
between 11 a.m and noon, as Daytime is a live TV show. As an idea, it would be
an interview (without a monitor to actually see the hosts in each community) at
perhaps 11:05, 11:15, 11:25, 11:35, 11:45 and 11:55.
On one of these occasions, John Morris was good enough to share his
thoughts on the game by joining me for six interviews. I still remember
him climbing over seats in the arena to rush up to our corner broadcast
position. You must keep in mind, this is like the movie Groundhog Day, but six
chats all in one hour. The task was simple – talk about yourself, curling, the
event’s upcoming schedule, promote the venue and community, rinse and repeat.
People who know curling would recognize names of other players who
participated in this Daytime fun, including Richard Hart (an Olympian with Mike
Harris), Bill Gamble (2003 Ontario champ with Bryan Cochrane), and Anne Dunn
(2003 Ontario champ in Mississauaga).
John Morris is an Olympic gold medallist (2010 in Vancouver with Kevin
Martin), and he and Jim Cotter also lost the finals at the Olympic trials in
Winnipeg late last year to Brad Jacobs (Who of course would win gold in Sochi).
It’s too bad John Morris now competes for B.C. as it would be great to
watch his team compete at the provincials in 2015 in Dorchester – an even to be
co-hosted by Dorchester, Thames Centre and the Ingersoll district curling club.
LINKS:
Full-Time Realtor; Part-Time Sports Broadcaster
Mark
Schadenberg, Sales Representative
Senior
Real Estate Specialist (SRES designation)
Royal
LePage Triland Realty
757 Dundas
St, Woodstock
www.wesellwoodstock.com
(519) 537-1553,
cell or text
Email:
mschadenberg@rogers.com
Twitter:
markroyallepage
Discussion
. . . Direction . . . Determination . . . Destination
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