Day 3 at the Brier: 'Cowboy' Brad Jacobs geared up to skip Calgary posse to success

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Brad Jacobs is feelin’ the Alberta vibe these days. Kind of has to if he wants to fit in with his rink-mates, it seems.

So the Ontario curling star is geared up these days with his Calgary crew …

In cowboy boots, a cowboy hat and the requisite western wear to go along with those accessories.

Plus Jacobs has gained an affinity for country music.

“Because I had no choice,” said the skip from Sault Ste. Marie, of being brainwashed by third Marc Kennedy, second Brett Gallant and lead Ben Hebert — big fans of chart-topper Morgan Wallen.

“Ben, Brett and Marc are all huge country music fans, and since I’ve come on the team, I’ve become a country music fan,” continued Jacobs. “But it’s been great, because I actually am a country music fan now.”

It’s true there was no denying it.

It’s all part of the plan to become Brier champions this week, world warriors next month and Olympic Games-bound in the fall.

“Has to love country music if he was going to play on this team,” Hebert said. “Just gotta get him to the Stampede next.”

Call it team building, an important part of the process — to be sure — in a bid to pull off the terrific triple that’s in front of them.

Heck … The Glencoe Club foursome even took a trip to Tennessee to bond ahead of the 2025 Montana’s Brier in Kelowna, B.C.

“Going down to Nashville together was a blast,” said Jacobs, of a sojourn sewn together by the rink’s title sponsor Bin There Dump That. “None of us had been there before. That was our first time. Our sponsor put us up in a great hotel, just like a block or two off Broadway, and what we did, basically was — besides some of the obligations that we had to take care of — we hit the spots on Broadway for lots of live music in the bars and some great meals.

“Another highlight of ours was we went to the Tee Line curling and bowling centre that they have there that (former NFL quarterback and The Curling Group adviser) Marc Bulger owns.

“They’ve got three sheets of curling, some bowling lanes and a big bar in the middle. Nashville is probably one of the last places you think that you’d be able to curl, but it’s a lot of fun.”

Fun — and successful, of course — is how Jacobs wants his time with his new-ish team to be.

You’ll recall he joined the squad last April after Kennedy, Gallant and Hebert parted ways with Brendan Bottcher in a move to go a different direction at skip, even though it was with Edmonton’s Bottcher that they claimed a qualifying spot in this Brier and a bronze medal at last winter’s Canadian men’s curling event in Regina.

And they’ve predictably become a force to at least repeat that feat in Kelowna.

“I think that we’ve had a pretty good season to this point,” said the 39-year-old Jacobs. “We started off a little slow, but there was a lot of changes and a lot of learning that we kind of had to go through at the start of the season. But I think everybody’s done a really good job of just being open and curious and just trying to be as world class as we all can.

“And we’ve steadily improved.”

At the Brier, they improved to 2-0 with a Draw 6 win record mark late Sunday over Northwest Territories champ Aaron Bartling (0-2). The 20-2 lopsided win was the largest margin of victory at the Brier since the playoff era began way back in 1980. That second win for Team Jacobs came after opening the 10-day gala with a 10-3 Saturday triumph over Yukon’s Thomas Scoffin.

“To be skipping these guys, man, I feel blessed,” said Jacobs, who opted to step away from Reid Carruthers’ Winnipeg crew last spring in pursuit of time off from the sport. “You know … Marc and Brett and Ben are three of the most talented curling athletes, hard-working guys and just all-around great people. So we’re having a ton of fun, as well as we challenge ourselves constantly, and I feel like we’re continually progressing and getting better all the time.

“When I came on to the team, I said to the guys it felt like the challenge that I needed at this point in my life to skip a team of this calibre. I thought it would just be a great challenge for myself, and I knew that coming on to this team with the amount of talent and experience that they’ve had over the years, I knew that it would challenge and push me to get better, and I think that it has so that’s been really rewarding, as well.

“I mean … my own personal resumé is OK,” added Jacobs, the 2013 Brier king and 2014 Olympic champion. “But for my standards, not nearly good enough. And I knew that when I had the opportunity to skip this team, that this would be a team that I thought — and we thought — could do it all.

“But there’s a lot of work in between saying that and actually going out and doing it. And really all that matters is whether we can go improve that to ourselves or not, and that right there is the challenge. So I think it’s important, despite everyone’s resumé and how well we’ve done in our careers over the years — and the three guys that I play with have way better resumés than I do — that the past does not matter. All that matters is sort of where we’re at right now and making sure that we we’re Brier-ready, and I know that we are.

“But also at the same time, in order to win these things, you need to detach yourself from results. You need to find a way to have a little bit of fun and play loose, and that’s what I’m hoping that we’re able to do over the course of the next week-and-a-half in Kelowna.”

Extra ends

Three teams moved to 3-0 atop Pool A with Sunday afternoon wins at the Brier. Canada’s Brad Gushue, the three-time defending champ, edged pesky Northern Ontario champ John Epping (2-1) to get there. Manitoba king Reid Carruthers did the same with a 5-4 edge of Alberta’s Kevin Koe (0-3) in an extra end. And top-ranked rink Matt Dunstone of Manitoba made it three Ws out of the gate with a 7-4 dump of B.C.’s Cameron de Jong (0-3). The other matinee score saw New Brunswick’s James Grattan (1-1) earn an 8-3 victory over Nunavut’s Shane Latimer (0-2) … In Pool B action, it was Saskatchewan’s Mike McEwen (3-0) moving to the top of the standings with a 3-0 record after two wins Sunday — an early 8-6 result over Nova Scotia’s Owen Purcell (1-2), and a late 8-4 decision over Ontario’s Sam Mooibroek (2-1) … The other Draw 4 scores early Sunday saw: Ontario’s Mooibroek beat up NWT’s Bartling (0-2) 12-2; Québec’s Felix Asselin (2-1) top Yukon’s Scoffin (1-2) 7-5; and Saskatchewan’s Rylan Kleiter (1-1) drop Prince Edward Island’s Tyler Smith (0-2) 7-4 … Sunday’s other late action saw: Yukon’s Scoffin upend Nova Scotia’s Purcell 7-5; and Québec’s Asselin bounce P.E.I.’s Smith 7-5 … The Brier continues with fourth-day action Monday — all times ET and all on TSN — in Draw 6 (11:30 a.m.), Draw 7 (4:30 p.m.) and Draw 8 (9:30 p.m.).

tsaelhof@postmedia.com

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