As milestone birthdays go this one was tough to beat.
Oilfields alumnus and former Millarville resident Elliott Mansell capped off a flawless performance on the pebbled ice on his 30th birthday to capture the USA Men’s Club National Championships with his parents Gord and Brenda Cherry in the stands on March 14 at the Potomac Curling Club near Washington D.C.
“Even going to regionals I didn't know what to expect, I hadn't curled competitively for several years, it was a new team with two guys I didn't really know,” said Mansell, who now lives in Denver. “I knew they were decent curlers and I didn't have much expectations, to be honest I didn't think we would win.
"Once we qualified (for nationals) I poured through all the curling zones and historical records of how the regions have done, did a bunch of research on the teams that were qualifying as they started to put together the draw.
"Once we started to gel as a team I thought we might have a decent chance, but I would be lying if I said I thought we would go undefeated and win the whole thing. It was pretty sweet and we were definitely pretty excited."
The skip guided the Denver team to a flawless 9-0 record at the club championships, featuring the 10 regional representative teams in the nation, and clinched the title by knocking off Arizona’s Bob Leclair 7-3 in the final.
“We went in with a game-plan and stuck to it,” Mansell said. “We knew that we could hit with anyone there because we were by far the youngest team, there was a lot of older, senior teams who liked to junk it up and who liked to draw and make it messy.
“We just said we’ll keep it clean, we’re going to get opportunities and when we get opportunities pounce and we did that every single game.”
Mansell, who curled for Oilfields High School and later at Olds College before moving south of the border, credited the strategy for the team’s success and step dad Gord played a big part in leading the charges along with sponsoring the team with his Okotoks-based business OCL Group.
“My step dad coached me all through high school and college and he was down there with us,” Mansell said. “When we came out for our fifth end break he would make sure we were sticking with the game-plan and it was just really good to have that extra set of eyes off the ice.
“He’s always been my biggest supporter, he was there all week and his company actually sponsored us.
“I will admit I am a very proud Canadian so to be playing in a USA Curling event was very strange, but it was cool because the company has a maple leaf on the logo so it was on our jackets and I know he really like that, too.”
The Mansell rink, representing the Denver Curling Club, pretty well span the continent with representation from three states along with the Foothills north of the border.
Third Aaron Johnston is from Wisconsin, second Sean Franey is a friend of Mansell’s from their time living in California and lead Cameron Cabrera is from the Miami area and is in just his second year of curling.
“We all just really gelled well together and had a ton of fun,” Mansell said. “When people would ask ‘are you from Colorado?’ we would say no we’re from the four corners of the U.S.A.
“One of the reasons I do like Denver is because it’s a lot like Calgary, a lot like Alberta, you’re right on the edge of the Rockies and you can be in the mountains in 30 minutes, ton of hiking, ton of fishing.”
The Colorado team wasn’t sure they would be able to complete the competition, given the rapid spike of COVID-19 particularly the week of the championship.
“We were one of the last sporting events that seemed to be going on,” he said. “The week we were there, the NBA got cancelled or postponed and we started to see all the different leagues or sporting events shutdown or get postponed and there was definitely a period near the end of the week where I didn’t know if we would get to finish.
“The way the trajectory was going and how rapidly the situation was evolving, I thought for sure there was a chance they might postpone it after round-robin. They let us finish it out and I’m obviously thankful for that.”
