First Win for new Venance Rink

By Staff · Sat, 14 Sep 2024 17:13:35 +0000
Glenn Venance now skips a team from Penticton after 8 years with Karsten Sturmay. After Karsten stepped away from the game, the rest of the team, JD Lind, Kyle Doering, Kurtis Goller went their own directions, leaving Venance with his future to ponder. "Our team came together kinda late in the shuffling process last spring," said Venance. "After Kyle Doering earned the opportunity to play with Sluchinski, I was flying solo." "I knew I wanted to give skipping a shot at that point. I wanted to test myself and see how I could grow as a player." Venance joined forces with Sebastian Robillard, Erik Colwell, and Matt Tolley, as a new BC-based team that will chase the provincial title in Langley in January. "Sebastien reached out to me, brought up Matt and Erik, and I was intrigued by the potential of this group." "Seb has a ton of experience and cares so much about the sport." "Matt and Erik were the core of a good Team De Jong last year, and are great guys to boot." After two losses, the Venance team dropped into the C-side, and the team went to work against Vernon's Rob Nobert, a potential challenger in BC playdowns. "Three of us are playing different positions than we did last year, so there's definitely going to be some growing pains," continued Venance. "We plan to improve every spiel we play, with an overall goal of being Team BC at the Brier in Kelowna." Venance opened with two in the first end, with Nobert returning the favour in the second end. After a blank in the third end, Venance had full house to draw for two and a 4-2 lead at the game's halfway point. Nobert scored two in the fifth end, then stole a point to take a 5-4 lead with two ends to play. Venance retook the lead with two points in the seventh end, then up one without hammer, stole the final end for the 7-5 win. Doering and the rest of Aaron Sluchinski's Calgary-based foursome will battle Venance today at 4 pm MT in the C-side semifinals. "That was a truly awesome group of guys, and I had an unbelievable amount of fun competing with them," said Venance on his time with Team Sturmay. For Glenn and Karsten, their eight years together saw several lineup changes and big successes. Growing up together through the University of Alberta Golden Bears program, the tandem played juniors, later winning a Canadian University title leading to a silver medal at the World Winter Universiade in 2019 in Krasnoyarsk, Russia. The pair qualified for their first Grand Slams together, twice competing in the Champions Cup and reaching the Brier in 2023 as a wildcard qualifier. The pair also played twice in the Tier 2 event at the Grand Slam: Tour Challenge. "Playing with guys of that calibre pushed me to be better and to grow my skill set past being a career lead, lol." "[Karsten] taught me so much and has incredible talent. I'll always value our time together and am grateful for the experiences I got to have by riding his coattails." Venance reflects on his future and the state of the game that once allowed young players to compete for so much longer. "I'm not naive to think my curling career will last forever." "I've got a relatively short shelf life as a player, and I felt that I'd always regret not betting on myself when I had the opportunity to do it." "I think that if competitive curling ends for me after this quad, I'll always value shooting my shot when I had the chance."
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