Terry Jones: Curling Couple Of The National championships.
Brad and Alison Thiessen, recently married curlers who are attending national championships with their Alberta teams, in Edmonton, Monday, February 13, 2017.
Brad and Alison Thiessen, recently married curlers who are attending national championships with their Alberta teams, in Edmonton,
It’s a Valentines Day sports story if there ever was one.
Last June 18, Brad Thiessen married Alison Kotylak in a curling themed ceremony. Now they’re going on curling honeymoons to the Scotties and the Brier.
Understand, curlers marry curlers so frequently that the odds are likely better finding a mate by joining a curling club than signing up for a dating service.
But this wedding became a LOVEly story Sunday in Westlock when Brad Thiessen won a trip to the Brier as second with Brendan Bottcher.
Sitting in the stands watching was Alison Thiessen, his wife of seven months who is heading to the Scotties Tournament of Hearts this week as lead for Shannon Kleibrink. Now both will be going to the Scotties and the Brier, to curl in one and watch their mate in the other.
A curling themed wedding?
“It was Brad’s idea,” said Alison. “I had four bridesmaids and he had four groomsmen. So we had a bagpiper pipe us out like in the opening ceremonies. We had the traditional team signs made up and carried in. One was ‘Team Bride’ and the other was ‘Team Groom’. Then we came in behind our sign ‘Team Newlywed’.”
Mick Lizmore and Bottcher were part of ‘Team Groom.’
“We had a lot of curlers there. I think there were five tables of just curlers.”
The two met at the Alberta Rocks curling camp in Leduc.
“I was 13 and he was 16. I liked him O.K. He said he knew we were going to get married right when we met,” said Alison, 24.
“Without curling we’d never have met,” said Brad, 26.
“I think it helps that we are both curlers.” said Alison.
“We both understand the lifestyle. Come September, we probably aren’t going to see a lot of each other until April or May.
“With Brad playing in that game Sunday I knew exactly how he felt and I knew exactly what it meant to him. Regardless if he won or if he lost, I knew exactly how he was going to feel. And when I played in the Alberta Scotties final I knew I’d have exactly the same support and knew that he would know exactly how I was feeling.”
Both say the curling part is the easy part,” she said.
“The watching was very difficult. I was very nervous. I was there the whole week in St. Albert. Every draw. It was nerve wracking. It was harder to watch than it is to play. She drove the hour or so to Westlock for our evening games, the 1-2 final and the final,” said Brad.
“It’s not the first time something like this has happened,” said Brad of a husband and wife doing the double. “Jennifer Jones is married to Brent Laing. There’s Mike and Dawn McEwen. I guess they’re the two most famous couples now.”
By unofficial count there were 15 curlers in the Boston Pizza Cup who are married to or dating (as is the case with Botcher and Bobbie Sauder.) The entire Ferbey Four married curlers including Alison’s new teammate Heather Nedohin to Dave.
This story could have been Lizmore and Wilkes going to both the Brier and Scotties together. Wilkes is Alison’s teammate going to St. Catharines for the Scotties. Lizmore lost to Bottcher in the ‘A’ final.
Brad and Alison made it to the World Mixed Championship in Russia as teammates with Lizmore and Wilkes.
“We kind of went into mixed curling with low expectations.
We just threw together the team. We were all playing our natural position. I played lead, Brad played second, Sara played third and Nick was the skip.
We grinded through Northerns qualifying through ‘C’ and went undefeated in both the Alberta and Canadian championships and went to the Worlds where there were 39 teams and we lost out in the eights.
“One thing that was kind of neat to not only go to Kazan, Russia, which is about a 20-hour drive from Moscow, for Worlds but to go as two couples. You are so used to going to curling events and rooming with your same gender.
We were able to stay with each other,” she said of her then fiancé.
“The entire experience was really cool because Brad and Mick played together originally on Bottcher’s U of A team.
The year Mick separated to skip his own team was the year Sarah and I started curling together. So Sarah and I have been cheering for opposite teams at the men’s events on a regular basis.
“That’s been a little bit frustrating. We sat together watching them play against each other in the ‘A’ qualifier. It’s really hard because one of us knows we’re taking home a sad person at the end of the night,” said Alison.