Manitoba team heading to World Deaf Curling Championships

A Manitoba curling squad is representing Canada astatine an planetary contention for deaf and hard of hearing players.

Lead Cam Hurst, 2nd Frank Chung, 3rd Bill Kluchnik, and skip Joe Comte are heading to Minneapolis successful April for the World Deaf Curling Championships. The squad won the accidental to correspond Canada aft they were crowned 2023 Canadian Deaf Curling champions successful Morris that year.

The Canadian Deaf Sports Association (CDSA) withdrew its teams’ information successful the 2024 Winter Deaflympics successful Erzurum, Turkiye owed to information concerns. The squad is anxious to vie internationally.

“[CDSA] committed to america that we would past correspond Canada astatine the adjacent planetary event,” said Comte, who spoke to Global News done an American Sign Language (ASL) interpreter.

“There were a fig of countries that didn’t attend, truthful we didn’t go,” said Hurst. “We’ve continued grooming for different year… to spell to the satellite championships successful Minneapolis, truthful we’re preparing for that now.”

Much of that grooming takes spot astatine the Cargill Curling Training Centre successful Morris. The squad is besides competing successful the Manitoba Open Bonspiel this weekend.

The squad met playing recreationally. All the members but Chung unrecorded successful Winnipeg; Chung is from Vancouver, and initially joined the squad arsenic a fifth. He moved into the 2nd presumption aft squad subordinate Brian Weselowski died successful 2023. The team’s matching jackets diagnostic a tribute to him connected the near shoulder.

All 4 are successful their mid-50s to mid-60s, making them immoderate of the older players astatine the rink. But some Hurst and Comte person been curling since their teens and aboriginal twenties, respectively.

“At the School for the Deaf is wherever I learned, actually, successful phys-ed class,” said Comte. “Once I graduated, we had the deaf league, actually. Back past we had truthful galore deaf curlers, truthful I joined the deaf curling league, and past I recovered retired we that we had a Canadian championship, and I fundamentally worked my mode into that, truthful it’s been an enjoyable process.”

Compte says he’s curled chiefly with different deaf players since then.

“I’ve played each the positions, and yet learned from immoderate truly bully skips that person trained me,” helium said. “I’ve developed my ain strategies, my ain doctrine … truthful the past fewer years, I person been skipping our rink.”

Hurst lone began curling successful deaf leagues successful much caller years, arsenic helium began to suffer his hearing. In day-to-day life, helium uses proceeding aids. But proceeding immunodeficiency and cochlear implants aren’t permitted successful high-level championships similar the upcoming Worlds.

“I’m conscionable learning ASL, due to the fact that I wasn’t calved deaf,” helium said. “What happens now, is erstwhile I’m curling with proceeding players, I tin bash dependable commands, but I’m besides doing ASL astatine the aforesaid time, truthful I’m teaching them.”

The squad is hoping to expanse distant the contention travel April.

“Last I heard, successful Minneapolis, we’ve got 10 countries successful the men’s category, and 10 successful the women’s category, and mixed doubles,” helium said.

“Yes, we volition decidedly bring a medal home.”