Latest news with #Brier
Calgary Herald
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Calgary Herald
Curling legend Kevin Martin draws Order of Sport, joining loaded Class of 2025
Article content Kevin Martin was forever on the mark during his legendary curling career. Article content Both on and off the ice. Article content And for his curling success, he's been named to receive the Order of Sport, Canada's highest sporting honour. Article content 'When it comes to an honour like the Order of Sport, you're in a group with all the athletes of all the different sports — and that means a lot,' said Martin, of the announcement made Tuesday by Canada's Sports Hall of Fame. 'But you don't really worry about this stuff when you're playing. All you do is get out there and try your best, and then wherever it all falls into place, it does. Article content Martin joins not only an elite club but an elite athletes class, as the 2025 inductees also include soccer legend Christine Sinclair, alpine skiing sensation Erik Guay, para-athletics performer Michelle Stilwell and softball superstar Darren Zack. Article content The two builders in the class of 2025 are philanthropist Martha Billes and hockey's Ted Nolan. Article content 'Definitely, you do not take it lightly,' said Martin of the call to order. 'I've actually heard from quite a few of people already, which has been pretty nice. Mostly, it's just a congratulations, which is fantastic to hear from a lot of people.' Article content Article content The 58-year-old native of Killam, Alta., touched many others during his career — and still does as a major advocate for the sport he has helped grow. Article content 'Between the junior curling and the events and the Grand Slam curling and the players association in the '90s and all those various things that I got myself into all those years ago, that means a lot, because that's off the ice,' Martin said. 'That's helping the game at a later date — growing the sport. Article content Article content 'Whereas winning is just yourself.' Article content And he won a lot. Article content At the provincial level, Martin skipped 12 rinks to Alberta titles, and he is a four-time Brier victor, advancing to win the world championship in 2008. Article content Twice, he represented Canada at the Olympics, winning the gold at the 2010 Vancouver Games. Article content Plus Martin has copped more grand-slam championships than any other curler. Article content 'The obvious answer is the Olympic gold in 2010,' said Martin, when asked to list his most memorable achievements. 'The 18th grand slam win meant a ton, too. Article content 'And helping to get the grand slams started meant a ton. Like developing it and getting it going was important, because that was necessary for a sport to grow internationally.' Article content Article content Sinclair, from Burnaby, B.C., is the all-time leader for international goals scored by men or women with 190 in 331 appearances with the Canadian women's team. She was an Olympic gold medallist in 2021 and twice a bronze medallist before retiring from the national team in 2023. Sinclair, 41, is now a co-owner of the Northern Super League's Vancouver Rise FC.
CTV News
29-05-2025
- General
- CTV News
Classic Sports Moments - The last time Saskatchewan won the Brier
Watch Let's go back to 1980, where Rick Folk skipped Team Saskatchewan to a win at the Brier
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Dunmore to improve Keystone Industrial Park Road with $1.8M in grants
Dunmore will use nearly $2 million in grants to improve the crumbling Keystone Industrial Park Road, giving drivers a smoother surface and pedestrians a safer path to work. Borough council voted Monday to approve a resolution authorizing and directing borough Manager Greg Wolff to sign an agreement with the state Department of Transportation to improve Keystone Industrial Park Road, council President Janet Brier said. The project, now more than 3½ years in the making, will use $1.8 million in grants to repave the borough-owned industrial park road and add a bike/walking lane for pedestrians, Brier said. The work will extend from the O'Neill Highway intersection to the Throop border, she said. In its current state, the pockmarked Keystone Industrial Park Road is shrinking at the edges as the shoulders crumble, she said, estimating it hasn't been repaved in at least 20 years. 'It looks like it was a war zone up there,' Brier said. * A vehicle reflected in a side mirror makes its way down Keystone Industrial Park Drive in Dunmore Tuesday, May 13, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG) * Keystone Industrial Park Drive in Dunmore Tuesday, May 13, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG) * Vehicles drive on Keystone Industrial Park Road in Dunmore Tuesday, May 13, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER) * Keystone Industrial Park Drive in Dunmore Tuesday, May 13, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG) Show Caption 1 of 4 A vehicle reflected in a side mirror makes its way down Keystone Industrial Park Drive in Dunmore Tuesday, May 13, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG) Expand With the traffic lines fading and the crumbled shoulders, Brier said she was concerned seeing people walking along the road on the way to work. 'It's super dangerous,' she said. 'There's heavy truck traffic.' The borough first applied for $1 million through the state's Multimodal Transportation Fund in July 2022, but the town only received $200,000, which wasn't enough for the project, Brier said. So, former Councilman Vince Amico, who was council president at the time, contacted the Appalachian Regional Commission, or ARC, Brier said. The ARC is an economic development partnership involving the federal government and 13 state governments, focusing on 423 counties across the Appalachian Region, including Lackawanna County, according to the ARC's website. The ARC's mission is to 'innovate, partner and invest to build community capacity and strengthen economic growth in Appalachia to help the region achieve socioeconomic parity with the nation,' according to the organization. Dunmore applied for funding for the project through the ARC. Following a lengthy process that included bringing in a grant writer to assist the borough, the town received $1.6 million for the industrial park road, Brier said. The preapplication process alone included contacting dozens of businesses to document growth in the industrial park, Brier said. 'They don't want to invest in a stagnant area,' she said. For example, Brier learned Maid-Rite Steak Co. Inc., 105 Keystone Industrial Park Road, was closing one of its offices and relocating about 45 people to its Dunmore location in the industrial park, she said. 'They want to see that type of growth,' she said of the ARC. Dunmore hired engineering firm Greenman-Pedersen Inc., which has an office on Montage Mountain, for the project's engineering, Brier said. The borough will now be working with PennDOT on the project, with the agency handling the construction process, she said. Brier did not yet have a timeline for when the work will take place, though she hopes it will bring more businesses to the borough. The industrial park itself is an attractive location because of its proximity to major roads like Interstates 80, 380 and 81, as well as the Casey Highway, she said. 'We want to attract business in Dunmore, and it's very unattractive for a business to come in here and see the roads that they'll be using to go in and out of their business, that their employees will be using,' Brier said. 'I'd like to make it look more attractive for businesses to want to come here.' Prior to council voting on the road improvements, the borough honored Dunmore resident and centenarian Charles Arnone with a proclamation for his 100th birthday, according to Councilman Tom Hallinan. Arnone served in both World War II and the Korean War, Hallinan said. Dunmore Mayor Max Conway, left, poses with resident and centenarian Charles Arnone on Monday at the Dunmore Community Center. The borough honored Arnone, who is a World War II and Korean War veteran, with a proclamation for his 100th birthday. (COURTESY OF COUNCILMAN TOM HALLINAN)
Winnipeg Free Press
29-04-2025
- Sport
- Winnipeg Free Press
Samagalski adds new page to storied career
The rocks had to align for Derek Samagalski to remain in competitive curling next season. The 40-year-old has a lot on his plate these days, raising a young family with his wife Selena in Carberry. His two daughters, six-year-old Dekkar and one-year-old Navy, take up most of his attention, leaving him with few hours in a week to give to a full-time, travelling team. He presumed it was unlikely to find a new squad that met all his needs this late in the quadrennial. Nicole Osborne / THE CANADIAN PRESS FILES Derek Samagalski says he couldn't pass up the possibility of playing in another Brier. So it almost seemed too good to be true when Samagalski's phone rang shortly after last month's Brier, with fellow Manitoban Sheldon Wettig on the other end to present the free agent with the perfect opportunity to join him, second Brady St. Louis and lead Christian Smitheram. It didn't take long for Samagalski to agree to become the next skip of the Nunavut-based team. 'We've known each other for years,' Samagalski said of he and Wettig, who lives in Brandon. 'We never really curled with each other, never really curled against each other very much, but we've always chatted here and there. He reached out to me early in the year, and I was helping him a little bit with some of his practice and stuff like that, and we kind of joked about it, 'Hey, maybe one year we can play in the Brier or try to put a team together for the Brier,' and I kind of didn't really think much of it. 'Here we are months later, and we're forming a team where that's our main goal is trying to represent Nunavut at the Brier.' Wettig has helped represent Nunavut at the last three national men's championships, once with Jake Higgs as his skip and the last two with Shane Latimer. St. Louis and Smitheram were on the 2023 and 2024 squads. Nunavut has gone a combined 2-22 in the last three Briers, leading Wettig to look for another change. 'I'm excited. I've never done it before. I'm looking forward to the challenge, and it's something that I've always wanted to do, but I've never done it at a high level yet.'– Derek Samagalski 'I didn't really want to play a whole lot, and that's why when I got this offer from Nunavut… it was with a very limited schedule,' Samagalski said. 'It was like, 'Oh man, this sounds awesome,' and like I said, there is a chance for us to go to the Brier, which obviously makes it sweet being a Newfoundland Brier, as well.' Indeed, Samagalski has escaped the rugged path that is the Manitoba playdowns, and his team is already the overwhelming favourite to represent Nunavut at the 2026 Brier in St. John's. That's the case despite Samagalski, a six-time provincial champion as a lead and second, being a skip for the first time in his career. 'I'm excited. I've never done it before,' said Samagalski. 'I'm looking forward to the challenge, and it's something that I've always wanted to do, but I've never done it at a high level yet.' The move to skip was also the right move physically. Years of heavy sweeping have taken their toll on him. 'I've been playing on the competitive tour now for close to 20 years, and I don't know how many more years I have left,' he said. 'Playing front-end every year I get older, obviously your body takes more of a pounding.' 'I've been playing on the competitive tour now for close to 20 years, and I don't know how many more years I have left.'– Derek Samagalski Samagalski played with Reid Carruthers for more than 13 years before stepping away from the team halfway through last season. After a few months away from the game, he linked up with Jacques Gauthier and Tanner Lott to form a three-man team in the lead-up to the last provincial championship qualifier, which they won. After coming up short at provincials, Samagalski, Gauthier and Lott agreed to explore their own opportunities, while keeping in touch in case nothing materialized. Odds were, their time together had run its course. 'I think we were just on a little bit of different levels, where even the reason why I had to step back from the Carruthers team was just — everyone thought that I retired, which I never, ever said that I was retiring. I just said I was taking a step back. When I did have to leave Reid's team there in November, curling was just getting too much, where I couldn't commit to every day, five days a week, spieling, practising, gym, with a young family,' said Samagalski, adding Gauthier and Lott were both in the market for travelling teams. 'It was getting to me. And I just couldn't do that anymore.' The competitive fire still burned in Samagalski's belly, though, and his new squad offers up a chance to play championship curling next season. During Elections Get campaign news, insight, analysis and commentary delivered to your inbox during Canada's 2025 election. 'I get to skip, which I've never done before, and get to learn a little bit of things, and the chance of the possibility of going to the Brier, I just couldn't pass that up.'– Derek Samagalski Samagalski and Wettig plan to play in the Westman Superleague together with a different front-end next season. They hope the experience together will bode well for them during the most important stretch of the competitive calendar, when they are with St. Louis and Smitheram. Samagalski expects there to be some rust on his part, and he anticipates a learning curve with his new teammates as they get a feel for one another, but he believes it's something worth experiencing. 'I figured to myself, well, if I have a chance to play on a team that's going to have a limited schedule, I get to skip, which I've never done before, and get to learn a little bit of things, and the chance of the possibility of going to the Brier, I just couldn't pass that up,' he said. Joshua Frey-SamReporter Josh Frey-Sam reports on sports and business at the Free Press. Josh got his start at the paper in 2022, just weeks after graduating from the Creative Communications program at Red River College. He reports primarily on amateur teams and athletes in sports. Read more about Josh. Every piece of reporting Josh produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press's tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press's history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates. Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
Global News
25-04-2025
- Sport
- Global News
Former Manitoba champ forms new curling team in Nunavut
Carberry, Man.'s own Derek Samagalski has assembled his own team after parting ways with his longtime squad this past season. Samagalski announced on social media he'll skip his own rink out of Nunavut next season with three curlers in that territory. The 40-year-old played with Reid Carruthers for over 13 seasons before last year's breakup, mostly at the second position. He briefly formed a team with Jacques Gauthier after both curlers lost their original teams. Get breaking National news For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen. Sign up for breaking National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy Samagalski won his first provincial men's curling championship with Rob Fowler and won five more titles with Carruthers. Samagalski has tabbed Sheldon Wettig to play third, Brady St. Louis at second and Christian Smitheram will throw the lead rocks. Wettig represented Nunavut at the 2025 Brier. It's the first time Samagalski has joined a non-Manitoba based team after also curling for skips Mike McEwen and Brad Jacobs. Story continues below advertisement Samagalski has made nine appearances at the Brier.
