Adam Prudhomme
Editor
Napanee’s Scott Chadwick is set to join one of Ontario’s top curling rinks for the upcoming season, serving as lead to skip John Epping.
Epping is coming off a strong season, having finished as runner-up at the 2022 Ontario Tankard, losing to Scott Howard in the final. In 2018 his team captured bronze at the Brier, held in Regina, Sask.
“I’m really excited, it’s a pretty cool opportunity,” said Chadwick of joining the new team. “Obviously I’ve had a lot of success curling the last couple of years, this is the next step up. They were the number one team in the world two years ago and there’s no reason we won’t back in that ranking at some point this year. It’s a really solid lineup and I’m extremely hopeful for the successes we’ll achieve.”
Rounding out Epping’s team is Pat Janssen at second and Mat Camm at third.
Chadwick joins Epping after serving as lead for Tanner Horgan last season, where the major focus was chasing the opportunity to represent Canada at the 2022 Olympics. Though they advanced to the Canadian Olympic Curling Trials, they fell short of their goal qualifying for the Beijing games.
The year after Olympic trials is typically when there’s a lot of movement between teams as skips reach out to recruit curlers they feel will take their team to the next level.
“A lot of sacrifices and a lot of years of hard work are slowly paying off and will hopefully pay off in spades this season,” said Chadwick.
John Epping’s team was ranked number one in the world in 2019. Submitted photo.
Joining a new team means Chadwick will be parting ways with long time teammate Jon Beuk, who plays third for Horgan’s rink. He and Chadwick had been teammates back to their days at Queen’s University, when Beuk skipped the Gaels to CIS gold. Their 11 seasons as teammates was the longest in the province.
“That’ll be a massive change for me to not have him battling on the ice beside me or getting ready for the season,” said Chadwick. “But I’ll be excited to play against him on the ice that’s for sure.”
Playing on Epping’s team makes for a bit of a commute for Chadwick, who still lives in the Napanee area. He says the team will work around that as much as possible while he makes frequent trips to Toronto to train as well as arriving a couple of days early to major tournaments to get in a few hours of practice at the host venue.
“Our big focuses this year, the Brier’s in London, On. so being able to represent Team Ontario and win the Brier in your home province is top of the list,” said Chadwick. “There’s also a brand new Curling Canada event near the end of September in Fredericton, the PointsBet Invitational that’ll be broadcast on TSN, it’s a whole new set up. It’s kind of doing the March Madness style, it’s single elimination so you have to win four games in a row to win it. That’ll be an early season target for us to try and get into shape and make a run there.”
Despite the sunny July weather, Chadwick is already gearing up for the upcoming curling season. He’ll be back on the pebbled ice in just three weeks and then on Aug. 23 the team will open the season with an event in Leduc, Alta.