Sunday 8 February 2015

Mark Kean claims Ontario curling championship

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
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Royal LePage Triland Realty
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Discussion . . . Direction . . . Determination . . . Destination
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