For Regina born Ben Hebert, coming home to curl is special.
“I mean Regina is probably my favourite place to play,” the Team Alberta – Bottcher Lead said. “I don’t know if everyone would say that Regina is their favourite place to curl but pretty passionate fans and just in general sports fans, but most importantly for me a lot of family and friends here so it’s nice for me to come home in the back nine of my career.”
Hebert grew up in Regina and started curling back in 1998 during his high school years.
Now 40 years old, Hebert has been curling out of Alberta since 2006 and is one of the most highly decorated athletes in the sport, boasting an Olympic gold medal, two world curling championship golds, and four Brier titles.
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His storied career has also allowed him to play with some of the best skips in Canadian curling, Kevin Martin, Kevin Koe and now Brendan Bottcher.
“Yeah, I’m a spoiled guy to get to play with those three skips out of Alberta, just the work ethic of all those three, you know Kevin Martin had some of the best work ethic I’ve ever seen, and then Brendan Bottcher’s not too far behind. Kevin Koe is just a natural, crazy good but yeah I’ve been pretty fortunate and learned a lot from them,” said Hebert.
Hebert said he is green with envy at the Team Saskatchewan threads but other than that there is no love lost for the rink from his home province.
“I will say I like the Sasky jerseys the best, I do like the colours and am still a little envious of the jersey but that’s about it. Outside of that I’m here to represent my team and see if we can beat everyone. I don’t care if you’re from Ontario, Alberta or Saskatchewan, it don’t matter to me.”
Team Alberta – Bottcher came into the tournament ranked first in the nation but the team is not feeling any added pressure according to Hebert.
“Being one of the favourites is a good thing, that means if you play good you’re going to have a chance at the end of the week right. We’ve had a good season, we’ve been really consistent, playing well, putting in a ton of work and yeah I expect us to be in the running at the end of the week for sure.
The team started the tournament with two consecutive wins against Newfoundland and Labrador, and Yukon and have a matchup with Ontario up next.
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