Steve Laycock - skip of the back-to-back Saskatchewan men鈥檚 provincial champion curling team and a 2015 Brier bronze medallist 鈥� is used to seeing skilled curlers on the ice.
He鈥檚 just not used to seeing so many talented curlers aged 17 and younger. 鈥淚f you compare age group to skill level, then I think every single one of these kids has the opportunity to become great curlers,鈥� said a visibly impressed Laycock following a curling clinic that he and his team of Dallan Muyres (lead), Colton Flasch (second) and Kirk Muyres (third) held on Sunday at the Yorkton Curling Club.
鈥淚t鈥檚 just a matter of them sticking with it and finding the right teammates and coaches because I think all of them showed that potential for sure.鈥�
Laycock, who grew up in and around the city of Yorkton, said that what impressed him the most about the local junior curlers was the fact that they not only listened to everything he and his team had to say, but when asked to demonstrate what they learned they were quick to show improvement. 鈥淲e did a little drill where they threw the first rock and from whatever they did there they had to make a little bit of a correction to get it a little bit closer to the button the next time,鈥� mentioned the 2003 World Junior Curling champion. 鈥淚t was a little bit of a look for them into the thought process that we go through as pros.
鈥淚t works for amateurs too, and you could see that immediately, where they would make their next shot better once they began to think about it that way and it鈥檚 impressive because that鈥檚 not easy.鈥�
Laycock then said that he was honoured to be asked to run a curling clinic for the young Yorkton and area curlers, alluding to the fact that he remembers fondly of when he himself was a young curler attending clinics held by local curling legends. 鈥淚t鈥檚 great to be here to help out the young curlers, because we were also lucky enough to have these opportunities as kids to do something like this, where at those times it would be guys like Gerry Adam or Gerald Shymko or Joan McCusker that came out and helped us get better,鈥� said Laycock, continuing, 鈥淭o have those local people that inspire you and make you realize that it is possible, I鈥檓 hoping we鈥檙e able to do that for them too.
鈥淢aybe we haven鈥檛 won an Olympic gold medal yet but we have been on TV and we did do pretty well at the Brier so for us to be able to do this it鈥檚 been a lot of fun for us and hopefully for them as well.鈥�
In addition to Yorkton, Laycock and company ran clinics in Tisdale, Outlook, Carnduff and Rosetown as a part of the fourth annual Curlingtown tour. Team Laycock will now go to Kindersley from February 3-7 to compete at the 2016 SaskTel Tankard for the right to represent Saskatchewan at the 2016 Brier in Ottawa in March.
