He’s won a brier championship wearing Alberta colours but Colton Flasch’s roots have always been in Saskatchewan. Now, he’s back curling in his home province.
The Biggar, Sask., native spent the last two years throwing second stones for Kevin Koe’s Calgary-based curling rink, but when Team Koe decided to shuffle its lineup in March, Flasch found himself looking for a new team.
He returned to Saskatchewan, and before long, was back in the skip’s role with that very thing.
“Playing with Kevin, you learn so much just in two years. Soaking in all of his knowledge and his strategy and the way he handles his teams,” Flasch said. “There’s just a lot of information that I’ll be able to move forward to take this team to the next level.”
Flasch found some familiar faces in the new foursome. Brothers Dan and Kevin Marsh — the team’s lead and second, respectively — played with Flasch before he ventured west, making it to the 2018 provincial final in their lone season together.
“I’m really excited to see what Colton has at skip again. We had a very successful season I’d say, for the goals we’d set out three years ago, and I’m really excited to get back on the ice and see what we can do,” Dan Marsh said.
The final member of the crew is third Catlin Schneider, who was also looking for a new outfit after being let go by reigning provincial champions Team Dunstone. Schneider was replaced by Kirk Muyres, who had in turn been playing with the Marsh brothers for the past two seasons.
The lineup shuffles have sparked talk of a budding rivalry between the two teams but Flasch doesn’t see it that way. He does, however, admit that the prospect of them meeting in a Tankard final is enticing.
Instead of focusing on the competition, Team Flasch is plotting its own course. The Canadian Olympic Trials are set to take place in Saskatoon in 2021 and the team is hoping to qualify for that event in addition to chasing Saskatchewan’s first brier title in four decades.
“If we can get back on the ice in September we’ll be out there and hopefully all the way until almost May next year, so we’re gonna play upwards of ten to twelve events and just really push ourselves,” Flasch said.
And if that means taking out a few friends along the way, so be it.
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