St. Albert curler Nathan Molberg slides into the junior playdowns with high expectations of going the distance.
The Team Alberta skip at the 2019 U18 nationals in Sherwood Park and Canada Winter Games in Red Deer is shooting for a championship-winning season in the U21 division with Morgan Bilassy returning as lead and former teammates’ Jacob Rahn and Braden Pelech rejoining the rink coached by Nicole Bellamy, manager of the St. Albert Curling Club.
“It’s a pretty big year. This is Jacob’s and Braden’s last year (in U21) so obviously we all want to win the province and go to nationals and we’re definitely trying hard to do it,” Molberg said of the foursome that finished 4-3 overall as the consolation round winner at the U18 provincials in 2018.
This weekend in Grande Prairie, two provincial spots are up for grabs in the four team double-knockout format.
Provincials start Jan. 1 at Lloydminster and nationals are Jan. 18 to 26 in Langley, B.C.
One of the U21 rinks in Grande Prairie is St. Albert based with skip Chase Lozinsky, third Gryffen Algot, second Carter Parenteau and lead Steven Leong.
Last season, Molberg’s lineup of Ben Helston, Nick Workman and Bilassy qualified for the playoffs at nationals and Canada Winter Games and finished one win short of competing in the medal rounds in both competitions.
The Molberg rink also competed on the Alberta Junior Curling Tour in a variety of U18 and U21 events.
“It’s a different level of play between U21 and U18. It’s different strategy in general, but we’ve got a good handle on that. Nicole is a great coach so we’ve got that covered,” Molberg said.
“As you get older there are few misses (in U21). You have to make more opportunities and you play a lot around the centre more so we’ll spend more time working on our angles off of the middle and then open it up later in the end,” Molberg added. “Whereas in U18 it might open up a little earlier and everything might be a little more spread out.”
Molberg, 19, is a year older and wiser after calling the shots at two Canadians.
“Playing that many top teams from out of province was a lot of fun and to be able to see different strategies, different ways people approach the game and to able to play against them was fantastic. I learned a lot of lessons on what happens in a week-long event, how your body reacts, how you get tired by game 11 and just how to manage shots and manage the end,” said Molberg of finishing 7-3 at the Canada Winter Games before going 6-3 at nationals.
“Overall they were pretty similar. We applied lessons that we learned over the Canada Games and applied those at nationals,” Molberg said. “They were both good weekends, we just didn’t quite finish out.
“The ending of both felt pretty similar. Going into the weekend in both events we were ranked pretty well. At Canada Games we lost out in the quarter-finals (4-3) against a really good Manitoba team. It was a super tight game down to last end, down by one kind of deal (before running out of rocks in the eighth end). If we would've won that we would’ve been in contention for medals.
"At nationals it was same sort of deal, qualifier game to get into playoffs, which was top four playoffs, so again really close game that came down to last shot (in the 5-3 loss to Nova Scotia in the B qualifier). It was really tight.
“Overall it was a great experience. Red Deer and Sherwood Park did a great job. Their hosting committees were fantastic.”
Molberg’s current rink has Rahn slotted at third and Pelech at second. Both were members of the Ryan Parent team that qualified for the U21 provincials in 2019 and were championship winners on the college circuit last season with Rahn, 20, of Edmonton in mixed in the Alberta Colleges’ Athletic Conference with the NAIT Ooks and Pelech, 19, a St. Albert Catholic High School graduate with the Concordia Thunder men in the ACAC and Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association.
In the provincial junior tour rankings, Molberg's squad is sixth out of 17 rinks and the best result out of a handful of events was second place in Leduc.
Bilassy, 18, of Edmonton and Molberg are also University of Alberta students so time management skills are crucial for the foursome to balance post-secondary schooling and curling.
“Last year we had guys from out of town so this year we can practice a little more together which is nice as we get going into the playdowns,” said Molberg, who is studying specialization in chemistry student.
Over The Pond
The season finale for the Molberg rink is the Over The Pond junior curling exchange through the Nordic Junior Curling Tour and Marc Kennedy Junior Classic.
The last event on the NJCT is the 52nd annual Bill Ross Trophy in April at Stockholm, Sweden.
The NJCT is the driving force behind the Over The Pond program through the initiatives of Kennedy and James Dryburgh, a former world junior champion for Sweden.
The Jessica Wytrychowski rink of Airdrie will also be going to Stockholm through the exchange program.
The NJCT reps in this year's Over The Pond, a male rink from Norway and a female rink from Sweden, are confirmed for the fifth annual Marc Kennedy Junior Classic, sponsored by the Co-operators, March 19 to 22 at the St. Albert and Crestwood clubs.
“Marc kindly invited us to go over to Sweden so we're super, super pumped,” said Molberg, the winning skip in the competitive U18 division at the 2017 Marc Kennedy Junior Classic in St. Albert. “It’s sort of the capstone to the season. It will be a ton of fun and a fantastic experience. How many times do you get to go over to a different country to play against other countries without going to worlds? We're super pumped and preparing for that as best we can.”
The Team Molberg gift card fundraiser for the Over The Pond trip is available at St. Albert Curling Club or through Candace Molberg at [email protected].
