A proud family returned home to their supportive hometown of Sundre recently boasting a world junior men's curling champion and a near women's semi-finalist in the same competition in their midst.
Parker Konschuh's Team Canada won the gold medal at the World Junior Curling Championships in Sweden Sunday with a 10-4 win over Sweden and an overall record of 10 wins 1 loss.
His sister Rebecca's women's junior team finished the same competition earlier in the week in sixth place, missing out on the semi-finals in a tie-breaking game they lost 11-10 to Russia.
“I'm very proud of what we've accomplished. I think we did really good,” said Rebecca, the second on the women's team.
Parker, the fifth on his team, was equally as proud of his team's efforts going into the gold medal match, saying they worked hard to get as far as they did.
Emails, texts and facebook postings cheering the teams and the Konschuh siblings on, poured in throughout the March 3 -11 competition
“I want to give a big shout out to the community...we've heard them and it's really cool to have them here with us,” Parker said. Rebecca echoed her bother's sentiments.
Ten junior women's and 10 junior men's teams travelled from around the world to compete in the 2012 event. Competing teams were determined on their final ranking at the 2011 World Junior Curling Championships and regional qualifications which took place in January. All players are under the age of 21.
The world competition was the first for the two Konschuh siblings and Rebecca says she hopes it won't be her last.
“We have two more years of this so hopefully we can repeat,” she said.
Her team, led by skip Jocelyn Peterman, was in a five-way race for third place at the conclusion of round robin play with a record of 6-3, conceding losses to Sweden, Czech Republic, and Japan.
In the tie-breaker game with Russia to see who would get a shot at the playoffs, Rebecca said the team started really strong.
“Then the Russian skip made a shot you'd probably get one in every 10 throws,” she said.
That raised double take-out in the second end raised the stakes significantly.
And although they fought back, the Canadian team was unable to stay ahead and lost the match 11-10.
The junior men's team, led by skip Brendan Bottcher, finished round robin play with a record of 8-1, with their only loss to Scotland.
Parker got his shot at the world stage, subbing in for third Evan Asmussen when he fell ill during the round robin game against Sweden.
“His stomach was a little bit upset and he had to sit down for a while but we had Parker to come in and he played great,” said Bottcher after the game.
This being Parker's first play of the championship, the Sundre curler admitted he was nervous.
“But the guys helped me out a lot and I did fine,” he said.
The two junior curlers were joined in Sweden by their parents Bev and Wade, who quarterbacked each game from the sidelines.
“I think for us, you want them to win and do good. You're playing every shot with them, that's really it,” said Wade.
