The curling castoff, castaway and sibling
Remember Jacques Gauthier?
How about Derek Samagalski?
Both competitors made waves when they abruptly departed the sport just weeks ago.
Now, Gauthier and Samagalski have joined with Tanner Lott and a “phantom fourth” to build a potential winning men’s combination in Winnipeg.
The budding squad played three-legged in a Manitoba men’s provincial qualifier last month at the city’s Deer Lodge Curling Club.
Wouldn’t you know it, they won a berth directly into next month’s provincial championship, Feb. 4-9 in Portage la Prairie.
According to Resby Coutts’ The Curler, Gauthier—who was dumped by the Kevin Koe team back in September—led his West St. Paul threesome to three wins in the qualifier, including a victory over Hayden Forrester of Fort Rouge to snag the berth.
In their second match, Team Gauthier scored a notable win over Richard Muntain.
Muntain was lying three in the sixth end and looking to steal three when Gauthier, who won world junior gold as a skip, made an angled tap from about three feet off the wall in front of the rings to score one.
Lott called the line and Samagalski, who abruptly quit Team Reid Carruthers in November, swept it perfectly (as one might expect).
The new crew then stole two in the seventh end en route to the win.
Tanner Lott is 32—three years older than Colton—and he can throw ’em just like his brother, and not just in men’s fours.
He’s got the stuff for mixed doubles, too, as shown in the video below.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvEpiGKeco4[/embed]
Coutts reports the team roster on the CurlManitoba website listed veteran Ron Gauthier as the fourth player. But Jacques’ dad—the husband of TSN analyst Cathy Gauthier—didn’t actually play.
“Ron was at Deer Lodge Saturday night and was pretty relaxed watching the game,” wrote Coutts. “The three man roster is already tough enough to beat, perhaps they thought it would be unfair to the opponent to add the extra guy.”
We at The Curling News have but one question.
Is the elder Gauthier a placeholder for a “player to be named later”… and could that be an even more recent Winnipeg castoff named B.J. Neufeld?