LETHBRIDGE, Alta. — Nicholas Codner has a little message for his teachers at Holy Trinity High School in Torbay, N.L.
“If any of them see this: Sorry,” the 15-year-old says, with a smile and a shrug. “It’s been a crazy week and I haven’t gotten into any of my homework.”
The kid just walked off the ice at the EnMax Centre while the crowd at the Brier roared for his Team Newfoundland and Labrador, which is by far the youngest team here, headlined in that respect by Codner, who earlier this week appeared in a game and became the youngest-ever-recorded player in Brier history.
“It’s been incredible,” Codner says of his Brier experience on the whole. “I don’t even know how to explaaaaain….” He trails off, and then he starts to laugh.
Entering the history books is something Codner says hadn’t yet set in, just after his team finished their final game of the round robin, ending with a 1-7 record (their win came against Yukon).
“That’s something I’m going to have for the rest of my life, and I can look back on it and tell people, and I think that’s really cool,” he says, of the record.
Team Newfoundland and Labrador — skip Nathan Young (he’s 19 and the most appropriately named skip here), vice skip Sam Follett, second Nathan Locke, lead Ben Stringer (the 20-year-old veteran in the group) and their alternate, Codner — finished their debut experience at the Brier with a 6-3 loss on Thursday afternoon against the defending champions, Team Canada.
After getting pictures with family and fans, the youngest team here walked off the ice and the crowd roared as they waved their brooms with smiles on their fresh-as-a-daisy faces.
Young, the skip who won mixed doubles gold at the Youth Olympics in 2020, didn’t expect his team to earn a shot at the Brier this early in their careers, but they won the provincial tankard, earning a trip here even before they competed at junior nationals.
“Can you think of a better practice event for the junior nationals than the men’s nationals?” Young asks. “So, yeah, we’re really looking forward to that tournament now.”
Young can’t think of a better place to learn how to be a top curler than the Brier, and says his team felt and played better with each game, and “surpassed all expectations this week.”
He figures the many things they’ve learned will hit them in the weeks that follow, but what jumped out immediately when he took the ice here is how precisely the top teams play when it comes to the positioning of stones and sweeping and managing shots.
“Just learning where we have to get to in order to be one of the best teams in the world, I think that’ll be very valuable to us,” Young says.
Codner has too many highlights to count from this experience, but throwing his first rock at the Brier tops the list, and a close second, he admits, “sounds a little weird,” but it was walking around his hotel and seeing players like Kevin Koe, Brad Gushue and Brad Jacobs in the flesh.
“They’re walking around the hotel and it was just like, ‘Oh my god, I see you on TV and here you are!’ And then I’m saying hi to the guys,” he says, laughing. “It’s pretty awesome.”
The team is going to enjoy the next couple of days in Lethbridge, and they’ll be here through the final on Sunday. Young and Codner have a similar prediction for who’s going to win it all.
“We have to go with our hometown team in Gushue, and we’ll be rooting for them,” Young says.
“I’ve gotta go with Brad Gushue,” Codner adds. “I mean, he’s playing amaaaazing.”
The plan for Team Young is to soak up their last couple of days at the Brier. They hadn’t yet frequented the Patch, where the beer and good vibes and dancing and concerts have been going all week long.
“Maybe we’ll take a visit there over the next few days,” Young says. “Sounds like a lot of fun things are happening in the Patch.”
That’s correct, Young.
But, the skipper is pretty sure only four out of the five of them will be allowed in: “Nick’s only 15,” he says, in case anyone needs a reminder.
Now that his team is out of the Brier, Codner doesn’t plan on using any of the downtime to do school work.
“I’m going to have to catch up when I get home,” he says. “Hopefully I didn’t fall too far behind. But, you know, this week has been crazy.”
Young Newfoundland and Labrador team gains valuable experience in Brier debut
Source: Pinas Ko Mahal
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