Princeton Elementary School in Edmonton   

Edmonton Firehall #25   

Marc and Kevin visiting an Edmonton Tim Hortons during Tim Hortons Camp Day June 02, 2010. Kevin looks ready to dunk Marc into the tank the last picture below!    

       

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As a regular feature, Canwest sports reporter Cory Wolfe gets personal with a sports figure. Today, curler John Morris gets cornered.

Morris is the vice-skip of Kevin Martin’s Olympic gold-medal winning team.

Canwest: Your book, Fit to Curl, is a training guide specifically for curlers. We’ve come a long way from the days when curling sheets had ashtrays.

Morris: (Laughs) Yeah, we still have fun and we’ll still go up to the lounge for a brewskie after the game, but in order to be the best in the world, you have to train a little more athletically for it.

Canwest: You’re a three-time world champion, but name an everyday task that you find extremely difficult.

Morris: Shaving. I usually have a pretty jam-packed day and if I don’t have to shave for my work at the firehall, then I probably wouldn’t be shaving.

Canwest: You seem to grow a pretty good beard by the end of a Brier.

Morris: It’s the playoff beard!

Canwest: If your team, the men’s Olympic champs, played 100 games against women’s champ Anette Norberg of Sweden, how many would you win?

Morris: Oh, I’m going to get myself in trouble for this answer, I bet. I would say 90.

Canwest: Why such a disparity? Why such dominance by the men?

Morris: Well, you can compare it to (the gender difference) in tennis or golf. First of all, the sweepers are a lot better in men’s curling. And being able to throw the rock really hard can be a big weapon. So, the advantage of sweeping and the advantage of throwing the rock harder would be enough to unbalance the scale, I guess.

Canwest: Consider each of your teammates — Kevin Martin, Marc Kennedy and Ben Hebert. Which Simpsons character does each one resemble?

Morris: (Laughs) OK, Marc is Ned Flanders. Kevin in Principal Skinner. And who’s the bully in school? Nelson. Benny is like Nelson.

Canwest: You’re known by some as curling’s bad boy, having snapped a few brooms and ripped off your shirt at least once. That said, confess something that proves you have a sensitive side.

Morris: I volunteer at the Children’s Hospital. Also, I used to work with autistic kids and I really enjoy working with kids.

Canwest: Very nice. Now you might not know this, but John Morris was a pirate during the 17th century. Do you have any famous ancestors?

Morris: Well, my great grandfather (Cliff McLachlan) represented Saskatchewan at the Brier in 1933. That’s the only famous ancestor I know of, besides maybe this long, lost pirate.

Canwest: What’s the best heckle you’ve heard from a curling crowd?

Morris: At the 2005 Olympic trials in Halifax, I wasn’t on Kevin’s team but we were playing against him. Someone in the crowd yelled out, ‘Kevin Martin! Put on a hat. The glare off your bald head is blinding me.’ That was a decent one.

Canwest: You fulfilled a sporting dream by winning an Olympic gold medal. Which of your sports fantasies hasn’t panned out?

Morris: I loved playing baseball and hockey growing up. Those were my two favourite sports. I would’ve loved to have made the majors or gone to the big show in the NHL. But being successful in curling, which is a bit more of a humble sport, is just as good.

Canwest: How would you make curling cooler?

Morris: First of all, you have to get the younger guys involved. Ever since the Olympics and the exposure that curling received there, it did a lot of good things for the younger demographic. Everywhere we go now there are younger fans who say they were watching curling and they want to try the game. That’s pretty cool. Since the Olympics, I’ve done a lot of talks at schools to make sure they know how to get started and how much fun curling can be.

Canwest: What’s the craziest curling superstition you’ve witnessed?

Morris: On our team, Marc doesn’t change his socks throughout the whole event so they get pretty gamy by the end of the contest.

Canwest: OK, last question. If you had a gun to your head and absolutely had to answer, what does rival skip Randy Ferbey do better than your boss, Kevin Martin.

Morris: Well, that’s easy. He’s better at drinking beer than Kevin. We went in a couple of tournaments in Switzerland and had a couple of beers over there. He’s definitely better at drinking beer than Kevin — maybe because Kevin doesn’t drink beer. Other than that? He doesn’t sweep better. I’m not sure — I think that might be it.

Saskatoon StarPhoenix

cwolfesp.canwest.com

To help with their cause against MS, Mike auctioned off a curling session with Kevin Martin and Marc Kennedy. The lucky winner was Brian from Drayton Valley with a bid of $2500. Congratulations Brian, and enjoy your curling session with Kevin and Marc!