By Wesley Ross
Normally, a 23-year-old competitor for the Ontario Curling Championship would be considered an anomaly, a young sensation on a crazy run upsetting older and more experienced competitors.
Just getting there would be a feat and winning would be a dream, not an expectation. Unless your last name is Morris and come from a curling dynasty spanning three generations.
Despite his young age, John Morris’s win at the Ontario Championship earlier this month was hardly a surprise to those familiar with the Ottawa native.
“It’s not an upset,” says Emile Tougas, manager of the Ottawa Curling Club, Morris’s former club. “He was second at the provincials last year.”
His international experience is equally as impressive: Morris is a two-time World Junior Champion in 1998 and 1999.
The winner of the Ontario Championship gets the right to represent the province at the Brier, the Canadian men’s curling championship.
Both Morris’s father and grandfather competed at the Brier.
This year’s event is being held in March in Calgary from March 9-17. In terms of attendence and prestige, the Brier is in a class all its own. The Brier regularly draws more than 200,000 spectators and the final game, televised on CBC, draws a per-minute audience of 1.2 million people.
Morris is one of the youngest competitors ever to win the Ontario crown.
“Over the past 30 years, he’s the youngest. Paul Savage in 1970 was 22, but he’s the youngest since then,” says Earle Morris, John’s father who is a member of the Ottawa Curling Club.
“It’s a lifelong dream,” the younger Morris says of making it to the Brier, “a dream come true really.”
As for the expectations others held for him, Morris has his own ideas.
“In my mind, we overachieved. Going in (to the Ontario playdowns), we were not playing so good. We took some time off and refocused. In the end, we put it all together,” he says.
While would seems time is on the side of this youthful competitor, that image is misleading. Morris is a second-year Kinesiology and Physical Education student at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo.
Finding time to juggle curling and school is a challenge. At the high point of his season, from September to late December, he’ll play eight games a week. Often, that means flying out on Wednesday and not returning until Monday morning.
“It’s a challenge,” he says, “but it’s one I am willing to accept. I think I would get bored if I just curled or went to school. This way it keeps you rolling.”
Morris competes on the World Curling Tour and is currently fifth in earnings with $56,000. That’s not a lot of money when it is split four ways among team members or when compared to the amount of expenses travelling around the continent to compete in these cash spiels.
The team does have a number of sponsors, most notably the Saville Group, which help with the costs of traveling.
As of January, the WCT members boycotted the provincial playdowns to protest what they consider unfair financial compensation.
John, on the other hand,has remained loyal to the Canadian Curling Association and is not allowed to play in some of the WCT events.
Right now, there isn’t enough money to make a living off the sport. Someday, Morris says, he’d like to see that change
Brent Laing, lead on the Morris team, says he’s never really considered making a living out of it.
“It’s just not realistic for the next few years,” says Laing, a member of the team for the past five years.
In order for the sport to turn professional, the American market would have to be tapped.
“As patriotic as I am, I hope the United States wins some medals at the Olympics because that would raise the profile of the sport down there,” adds Morris.
As for his chances at the Brier, Morris remains confident.
“As big as the Brier is, for some reason, I feel very relaxed.”