Meet the Teams: Alberta – Bottcher, Manitoba – Dunstone

Meet the Teams competing at the 2024 Montana’s Brier

The 2024 Montana’s Brier, presented by AGI, is slated for March 1-10 at the Brandt Centre in Regina. Eighteen men’s teams will compete in the national curling championship. Meet the teams: 

Team Alberta – Bottcher 

Year 2 of Brendan Bottcher’s revamp got off to a fast start this 2023-24 curling season. 

The Alberta-based team, comprising vice-skip Marc Kennedy, second Brett Gallant and lead Ben Hebert, are a solid 43-16 in play, winning its first two events and three of its first four. Team Bottcher claimed the Saville Shootout, ATB Okotoks Classic and Insitu Players Open – the last two with tight, one-point championship victories over provincial rival Kevin Koe. 

There were also two runner-up finishes and three semifinal setbacks in five other events as Team Bottcher proved to be a tough out. The team’s success is far from a surprise as, between them, the four have 45 previous appearances at the men’s national championship. Hebert leads the way with 15; followed by Kennedy’s 12; and Gallant’s 11. 

Bottcher himself has competed in the past seven straight Montana’s Briers, including a national championship win in 2021, after three-straight runner-up finishes. He also finished third in 2022 before making a complete change to his lineup. 

Bottcher is also a New Holland Canadian U-21 and World Junior champion and finished third at the 2013 FISU World Winter University Games. 

Kennedy, Gallant and Hebert are all Olympic medallists, Kennedy claiming gold along with Hebert, from 2010 with skip Kevin Martin. He also has an Olympic bronze as alternate with Gallant and skip Brad Gushue from the 2022 Olympic Games. Kennedy also has three gold medals and a silver from previous Montana’s Briers to go with two gold and a silver from World Championships. 

Hebert also owns four Montana’s Brier golds to go with three silvers and two gold and silver medals from Worlds as his trophy shelf gets a little heavy. 

Along with his Olympic bronze, Gallant has four Montana’s Brier titles and a bronze medal to his name, while curling with Brad Gushue. At the World level, Gallant has a gold and two silvers playing with Gushue and silver in mixed doubles with his wife Jocelyn Peterman. The two have two Canadian mixed doubles titles under their belts. 

The team is coached by Paul Webster. 

Team Manitoba – Dunstone 

Matt Dunstone fell one win shy of snapping a 12-year Manitoba drought at the Montana’s Brier, presented by AGI, dropping the 2023 championship final to Team Brad Gushue. 

Dunstone with teammates B.J. Neufeld at vice-skip, Colton Lott at second, Ryan Harnden at lead and coach Adam Kingsbury, will make their second-straight appearance at nationals. The last time the province of Manitoba carted off the Tankard trophy was back in 2011 when skip Jeff Stoughton, now a coach with Curling Canada, topped the field. 

This will be Dunstone’s sixth trip to nationals, but just the second under the Manitoba colours as he represented Saskatchewan the first three visits and Team Wild Card the other year. 

Along with his runner-up finish in 2023, Dunstone also placed third at the event in 2020 and 2021. Dunstone is also a former two-time New Holland Canadian U-21 champion who went on to finish third twice at the World Juniors. 

His team has plenty of Montana’s Brier experience as Neufeld is a former champion from 2019, curling with Kevin Koe out of Alberta, and finished as a runner-up two more times with Koe. Neufeld also has silver medals from the 2019 Worlds and 2017 Canadian Curling Trials. He also finished third at the 2021 Canadian Curling Trials and 2017 Brier. 

Lott has competed in just two Montana’s Briers, his first year as lead with Mike McEwen’s Manitoba team and last season with Dunstone. He is a former Canadian and World Junior champion from 2015, playing as alternate with Team Braden Calvert, and Lott also finished third twice at World Juniors with Dunstone in 2013 and 2016. 

Lott also owns two silver medals and a bronze from Canadian Mixed Doubles Championships where he curls with his wife Kadriana Sahaidak and a bronze from the Canada Winter Games in 2011. 

Harnden has the most experience of the four with 15 appearances at the national men’s championships including the last 10 straight. He was a member of the 2014 Olympic gold medallist team skipped by Brad Jacobs and that team also claimed the 2013 Montana’s Brier before finishing second at Worlds. Harnden also has two silver and three bronze medals from other Montana’s Brier appearances. 

Rob Gordon is the team’s alternate. 

Purchase your tickets for the 2024 Montana’s Brier in Regina at https://www.curling.ca/2024brier/tickets/#haveaticket