KINGSTON, Ont. — Matt Dunstone’s eyes shoot up toward the ceiling: “Ooh,” the Team Saskatchewan skip says, thinking. “I would’ve been really young.”
The 24-year-old, who is still quite young — he’s the most youthful skip left in the Brier’s Championship Pool — can’t remember exactly when he first found out about this tournament, but it was probably a couple decades ago. Dunstone started curling on the kitchen floor with a wooden set at the age of four, and set foot on the ice that same year, at Winnipeg’s Heather Curling Club. He figures it had to be right around then that he became aware of the Brier.
“As soon as I knew about it, it’s been the dream,” the bearded young Dunstone said, shortly after playing in his dream tournament, where his team has posted a 6-3 record through Thursday’s action.
Curling has been an obsession since before the Winnipeg-born skip can even recall, in part because Dunstone loved to watch his dad, a competitive curler himself. “I don’t remember that far back, but my family told me that’s all I ever talked about as a youngster,” Dunstone said. “My family always saw it in me.”
Well, now everybody’s getting a good look at Dunstone. And, as Wild Card skip Mike McEwen puts it: “He’s a really fun, fun player to watch.”
Dunstone is, and he and his rink of lead Dustin Kidby, second Catlin Schneider and third Braeden Moskowy are still in the mix here. This is despite the fact Saskatchewan had its toughest day Thursday, suffering back-to-back losses to Brendan Bottcher’s Alberta rink and world No. 1 Brad Jacobs of Northern Ontario.
Saskatchewan is now tied for fourth in the standings, with the top four moving on to Saturday’s playoff round. Alberta (8-1) leads the way, Newfoundland and the Wild Cards are tied for second (7-2), with Saskatchewan, Northern Ontario, Team Canada and Ontario all sitting at 6-3. A lot can happen Friday, when teams each play two more games.
In the lead-up to the playoff round, there’s been a lot of talk about the youngest skip here.
“He’s amazing, and a really good guy, really talented player,” Alberta third, Darren Moulding, said of Dunstone. “I’ve seen a lot of growth in Matt the last few years playing against him, and obviously we’re going to be battling for years to come with him.”
“I had a lot of energy and spunk to me at that age, I’m not so sure I was quite as good as [Dunstone] is at his age,” said McEwen, who’s 39. “Just to get under his belt the experiences that he’s getting at that age, 24? Oh boy, look out. Look out if he keeps going.”
“For young guys like Matt Dunstone to come out and play the way he’s played at that age … that’s the evolution of our sport,” added Northern Ontario third, Marc Kennedy. “Younger, better, mentally stronger, fitter, technically strong, all of the above, and it’s just awesome to see for us old guys.” (Kennedy is 38. It’s all relative.)
McEwen expects to see younger kids breaking out as Dunstone has, with the sport evolving as it has over the last decade. “It used to be traditionally, you could look back and it was understood that as a skip, you didn’t really hit [your] prime until 35. That happened a lot in curling as far as just gaining the amount of experience you needed to skip at a high level,” he said. “Looks like Matt’s way ahead of the curve.”
Dunstone competed at the Brier once before as a vice-skip in 2018, while throwing fourth stones. He was 22 then, and his team went 6-5, which he says was valuable experience. “You know exactly what you’re getting yourself into, all the distractions and the fun activities that come with it,” he said. “You can learn to expect it and enjoy them a little bit more. It’s easier to prepare, for sure.”
He’s in tough the rest of the way, as is every rink here. The last eight teams standing in the championship round are the top eight-ranked Canadian rinks in the world. Dunstone’s team is the lowest-ranked team in the world still standing, at No. 13.
He won his first Grand Slam event in October, and it brought him to tears. If Dunstone and Co. can get it done here, it would mark the first time since 1980 that the province of Saskatchewan brought home the Brier. But Dunstone hasn’t allowed himself to dream of that just yet.
There’s a ways to go, still.
“I’ve been dreaming of playing in the Brier for a long time,” he said, “but I don’t think I can even begin to imagine what it’d be like to actually win one.”
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