Meet Canada's team: Brad Jacobs 'Looking forward' to men's curling worlds
Calgary's Glencoe Club crew aim to make Moose Jaw home for nine-day grind in pursuit of gold medals
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Home sweet home … it’s what Brad Jacobs and his Canadian crew hope to make Moose Jaw, Sask., for the nine days of the 2025 BTK World Men’s Curling Championship.
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It doesn’t get any better.
And it doesn’t get old either, even for this group of super-curlers — Jacobs, Marc Kennedy, Brett Gallant, Ben Hebert and Tyler Tardi — which boasts a combined 13 gold medals copped from the international stage, home and away.
“I’ve only played in one of these things, and it was at home,” said Jacobs, recalling his only other participation in the men’s worlds. “And I’ll never forget that. It was in Victoria in 2013.
“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, stay somewhere fancy and experience something new,’” continued Canada’s skipper.
“And my response to that is, ‘I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else but in Canada.’
“I’m just looking forward to throwing on the maple leaf at home in front of our Canadian fans and hopefully create a lot of excitement as a team for everyone in the arena, as much as we can.”
They’ll need that energy — and to feed off it — for plenty of reasons.
The biggest one is to help prop them up during such a hectic schedule of 12 round-robin games in just seven days — beginning Saturday against Japan’s Tsuyoshi Yamaguchi (4 p.m. ET, TSN) — followed, hopefully, by a long playoff run.
“I just think being at home creates a great positive energy and atmosphere that can just go through the whole team,” said Kennedy, Canada’s decorated third. “You feel at home, you feel supported, you know people are going to cheer loud when you’re making shots … you know, it almost makes you want to make the shot even more, knowing that you’re going to get a great reaction from the crowd.
“So, yeah, it’s like a home game for any other sports team. It’s like having another person on your team.
“And from all we’ve heard, it’s going to be a packed house and a full crowd, and we know they’re all going to be supporting our team — or most of them anyway.”
WHO’S AT WORLDS FOR CANADA?
Why it’s the one of the top-ranked teams in the world …
Third only to top-rated Bruce Mouat, the Scotland gang Team Jacobs meets this week in trying to win the title, and fellow Canadian crew Team Dunstone, which Jacobs topped in the Montana Brier finale to punch its ticket to worlds.
The Glencoe Club squad from Calgary went a perfect 12-1 at the 2025 Montana’s Brier earlier this month in Kelowna, B.C., featuring a run of four must-wins to cap the event. That included a 5-3 championship-draw decision over Dunstone after a 7-5 elimination of legend Brad Gushue in the semifinal.
• Brad Jacobs, skip (39, Sault Ste. Marie, Ont.) — 1 Olympic gold medal (2014 Sochi); 1 Canadian Olympic trials gold (2013 Winnipeg); 2 Brier golds (2025 Kelowna, 2013 Edmonton)
• Marc Kennedy, third (43, St. Albert, Alta.) — 1 Olympic gold medal (2010 Vancouver); 2 world championship golds (2016 Basel, 2008 Grand Forks); 1 University Games gold (2003 Tarvisio); 2 Canadian Olympic trials golds (2017 Ottawa, 2009 Edmonton); 4 Brier golds (2025 Kelowna, 2016 Ottawa, 2009 Calgary, 2008 Winnipeg); 1 Canada Winter Games gold (1999 Corner Brook)
• Brett Gallant, second (35, Charlottetown, P.E.I.) — 1 world championship gold (2017 Edmonton); 2 Canadian Olympic trials golds (2025 Liverpool (mixed doubles); 2021 Saskatoon (men’s)); 5 Brier golds (2025 Kelowna, 2022 Lethbridge, 2020 Kingston, 2018 Regina, 2017 St. John’s); 2 Canadian mixed doubles golds (2019 Fredericton, 2016 Saskatoon)
• Ben Hebert, lead (42, Regina, Sask.) — 1 Olympic gold medal (2010 Vancouver); 2 world championship golds (2016 Basel, 2008 Grand Forks); 1 world junior championships gold (2003 Films); 2 Canadian Olympic trials golds (2017 Ottawa, 2009 Edmonton); 5 Brier golds (2025 Kelowna, 2019 Brandon, 2016 Ottawa, 2009 Calgary, 2008 Winnipeg)
• Tyler Tardi, alternate (26, Richmond, B.C.) — 2 world junior championships golds (2019 Liverpool, 2018 Aberdeen); 1 Winter Youth Olympics gold (2016 Lillehammer)
Jacobs & Co. get help from team coach Paul Webster — a five-time Olympic coach — and national coach Jeff Stoughton — a two-time world king himself in 1996 Hamilton and 2011 Regina — not only as cheerleaders and strategists but to help keep them focused on the daily goals they have in place for themselves.
“I think our our job with these guys is to just keep them in check,” Webster said. “Hold them accountable to what they say they want to do to win.”
WHEN DOES CANADA PLAY?
Here’s Canada’s entire schedule — a packed 12-game round-robin slate followed, hopefully, by the playoffs — at Moose Jaw’s Temple Gardens Centre (all times ET on TSN):
Saturday, March 29
4 p.m. — vs. Japan (Tsuyoshi Yamaguchi)
9 p.m. — vs. Germany (Marc Muskatewitz)
Sunday, March 30
4 p.m — vs. South Korea (Kim Hyo-jun)
Monday, March 31
4 p.m. — vs. Scotland (Bruce Mouat)
Tuesday, April 1
11 a.m. — vs. Sweden (Niklas Edin)
9 p.m. — vs. Italy (Joël Retornaz)
Wednesday, April 2
11 a.m. — vs. Norway (Magnus Ramsfjell)
9 p.m. — vs. Czechia (Lukas Klima)
Thursday, April 3
11 a.m. — vs. China (Xu Xiaoming)
9 p.m. — vs. Switzerland (Yannick Schwaller)
Friday, April 4
4 p.m. — vs. Austria (Mathias Genner)
9 p.m. — vs. United States (Korey Dropkin)
Saturday, April 5
11 a.m. — Qualification games
5 p.m. — Semifinal
Sunday, April 6
11 a.m. — Bronze-medal game
5 p.m. — Gold-medal game
“We’re going to have to play as good as we just did at the Brier — or maybe even a little bit better — if we want to win the world championship,” added Jacobs. “That’s the reality.
“But hopefully, we can get a good map of the sheets really quick, get comfortable out there and get rolling exactly like we did at the Brier.”
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