Garnett eyes another provincial crown

Justin Seward
Times Reporter

 

Strathmore curler Scott Garnett continues to live out his dream of playing in the Brier as part of the Calgary-based Team Yablonski.
The team – which consists of Garnett, Kevin Yablonski, Michael Roy and Matthew McDonald – won a C qualifier over Airdrie 9-3 to earn a spot in the mens provincials, and could go to Canadian curling’s top event, if achieving another win.
“We’re going into it with the idea that we know it’s for the Brier,” said Garnett. “We want to give it our best go. Our goal is playoffs. We’re not going in there not to win. It’s just not a very fun way to go. We just have to bring our A game and hope that it’s on our side.”
He added that the key to their success has been their aggressive approach which has given them the chance to get as many points as they could early on in games.
“We strive with rocks in play,” said Garnett. “I guess we’re balls to the wall in a way. We love putting things in front to raise them up. I think as a younger team we’re tempted to get away from that because you want to play more defensive.”
Garnett is no stranger to the big stages as he began his curling career with a provincial appearance back in 2006 where he, along with other local curler Derek Clark, won provincials at the juvenile level where they earned a berth in the Optimist Internationals where they lost in the final and a spot in the Canada Winter Games.
In 2008, he curled for the junior mens team and made it to provincials, losing in the final and the chance to compete in the Junior Nationals. It was there, after the team fizzled, where Garnett had to make a decision to continue his curling career or finish his business degree at Acadia University.
“I always wanted to go out east for school,” said Garnett. “Acadia was my dream from high school. I made the decision to move out East in 2010 to pursue my degree. I got accepted into school and started looking for a team. I went online and I looked at who won the province the year before and went straight to the team that lost because I knew what it felt like to lose.”
While at Acadia he joined a Nova Scotia juniors team in 2010. The team didn’t have much success at the start of the year, but things turned around when they qualified into the last spot in the Last Chance.
“At provincials we fired off seven wins,” said Garnett. “We lost in the A final, then won the B and C finals. We lost our first game on a pick rock and in the second game it came down to last rock and won. Then we made it to nationals. That was an awesome way to cap off my junior career.”
The team went to nationals in Quebec but lost out in going to the playoff round.
Other events that Team Yablonski will participate in this season will be a Northern Alberta Spiel and playdowns.
Provincials will be held from Feb. 10-14 in Camrose.