Ontario Tankard took place in Dorchester
Kean's resume is quite impressive when you look at all results; The Brier is next
By Mark Schadenberg
(EDITED after Ontario championships were completed)
If you follow the sport of curling you
know exactly who Mark Kean is.
Kean grew up in Innerkip and graduated
from Woodstock's Huron Park Secondary School.
In curling circles (pun), he may be
labelled this season as a skip from the Fenelon Falls club or a
resident of Stoney Creek, but other locales may also claim Kean as a
hometown athlete.
ONTARIO CHAMPION
On Sunday, Feb 8, Mark Kean won his first Ontario Tankard and qualified for the The Brier (In Calgary, Feb 28 - March 8) by defeating John Epping in the provincial championship final, 7-6, in Dorchester.
LOOKING BACK
Andrew Flemming, Ed Cyr and Terry
Arnold were his teammates in 2010 when Kean represented the Westmount
curling club and won the Ontario Colts championship. It's part of
climbing the curling ladder as Kean was a runner-up in 2009.
At the junior level, Kean won a
provincial crown in junior mixed in 2009 wearing the banner of the
Kitchener-Waterloo club and competed in a foursome with Jaclyn
Rivington, Andrew Inouye and Darrelle Johnson.
Young curlers move around for many
reasons – most notably for schooling.
Moving ahead to this winter and the 11-team provincial men's championship, the 8-2
round robin in the 2015 Ontario championships – The 'Recharge With
Milk' Tankard, also nicknamed the Clash On The Thames in Dorchester
(too many names) and organized by the Ingersoll District curling club
– now sees Kean playing with Matt Camm, David Mathers and Scott Howard (pictured below).
Camm, Mathers and Howard were Ontario junior champs with Camm as
skip in 2011 and they then represented the Ottawa area – losing later in
the Canadian championship to a squad from Saskatchewan.
Kean has more experience than most
would think as he has also been a regular on the World Curling Tour
(WCT) circuit.
For this year's provincials, once you
factor in the knowledge of Bryan Cochrane as coach (Cochrane is a
former Ontario champion at skip and Camm is a former player on
Bryan's team), and the fact Scott Howard's dad is the legendary Glenn
Howard – it's easy to see that the framework was there for a team
that should be able to contend against the likes of John Epping,
Peter Corner (Wayne Middaugh throwing last rocks), Joe Frans, Rob Rumfeldt, Aaron
Squires, Ian MacAulay and defending champ Greg Balsdon on the
all-Ontario sheets at the Flight Exec Centre in Dorchester. In my opinion, entering the week the best Ontario skip to never win the provincial title who was still competing was: Epping.
At the 2011 provincial Tankard in
Grimsby, Kean was 3-7 with Patrick Janssen, Tim March and vice/third
Chris VanHuyse. Janssen and March are now
part of the Epping foursome.
In 2012, Kean again qualified for the
Ontario championships, but again went 3-7.
Just last year, Cochrane and Camm lost
in the Tankard semifinals.
On the WCT side, at the 2012 Canadian
Open of Curling, Kean lost in the semifinals to Glenn Howard and that
was an 18-team field also including Brad Gushue, Brad Jacobs, Jeff
Stoughton, Mike McEwen, John Morris, Kevin Koe, John Epping and
Jean-Michel Menard.
As roster shuffling occurs in curling
as in any other competitive sport, Kean's 2012 team included Travis
Fanset, Patrick Janssen and Tim March. All three of those gentleman
now comprise Epping's quartet.
Kean, who is only 26, is the grandson
of Verne Kean, and son of Scott and Kathy Kean – all well known for
curling in the Woodstock area. Verne had competed at the Tankard
himself several times and was chair of the Ontario championships when
it was hosted by Woodstock in 2001. Verne Kean is also a past
president of the Ontario Curling Association. Mark Kean's bio on the
World Curling Tour site notes he began curling at age 8. I'm
surprised he wasn't actually sitting on a curling stone from the time
he was 8 months old. (Photo of 3 generations dad Scott, gramps Verne and Mark at 2001 Tankard when held in Woodstock at Southwood Arena).
This week, Mark Kean opened the
Recharge With Milk bonspiel quickly with four lop-sided wins – 8-3
over Colin Dow, 9-3 over Joe Frans, 9-3 past defending champion Greg
Balsdon, and then downing Aaron Squires 9-4. Completing the round
robin at 8-2 was not easy as Kean lost both his Wednesday matches
before sweeping by his next four opponents, including a 10-5 win
against Peter Corner, which included Middaugh throwing last rocks.
In regional and zone playdowns, Mark
Kean beat John Epping at a Whitby competition to claim the 'Zone2A' placing for the
Ontario Tankard. Epping, however, would later claim the consolation
final there and also advance.
If competing at the Olympics is the
ultimate prize in curling, Mark Kean (Fanset, Janssen and March) was
able to qualify also for the Olympic trials process, losing to Brad
Jacobs in the Road To The Roar spiel in 2013 in Kitchener. A berth in
the actual Olympic Trials was the goal. You may remember, that Jacobs
from Sault Ste Marie would go on to represent Canada in Sochi and
also earn gold.
Oxford County -- most certainly Innerkip and Woodstock -- is very proud of Mark Kean's curling results. The win was certainly no fluke as the current Canadian Curling Association rankings prove that Mark Kean is among the very best in the country and that Epping (after Glenn Howard failed to qualify for provincials) was certainly the main foe to winning The Tankard.
LINKS:
Mark
Schadenberg, Sales
Representative
Senior
Real Estate Specialist (SRES designation)
Royal
LePage Triland Realty
757
Dundas St, Woodstock
(519)
537-1553, cell or text
Twitter:
markroyallepage
Facebook:
Mark Schadenberg, Royal LePage Triland
Discussion
. . . Direction . . . Determination . . . Destination
