Coolest experience!

British Columbia’s Team de Jong soaking in home-province Montana’s Brier experience

Cameron de Jong is making his Montana’s Brier, presented by AGI, debut in the truest sense. The 31-year-old skip from Victoria has never watched the event in person, let alone compete at it, until this week.

The 31-year-old skip from Victoria, B.C., is getting the full experience as skip of Team British Columbia. On Tuesday afternoon, he and his team — vice-skip Alex Horvath, second Corey Chester, lead Brayden Carpenter, alternate Paul Cseke and coach Bryan Miki — earned their first win this week at Prospera Place in Kelowna, B.C.

Team de Jong is in the enviable position of representing the home province at this year’s Montana’s Brier. It comes with the perks of competing in the Canadian crown jewel of curling, with the bonus of having thousands of home-province fans cheering the team on. 

Those fans got what they asked for on Tuesday afternoon when British Columbia (1-5; Victoria) earned its first victory of the event with a 10-3 win against Nunavut’s Team Shane Latimer (0-5; Iqaluit). While it is British Columbia’s first win of the week, its record is not reflective of how well they’ve played.

“It’s nice to finally get that win,” said de Jong. “I know we’ve had five really close games coming into this game. So to be able to come out on the right side of the scoreboard, it really means a lot to us. All the hard work that we’ve put in earlier this week has finally paid off.” 

The team’s record does not highlight the team’s successes this week. British Columbia has played its fair share of competitive games against Canada’s Team Brad Gushue, Manitoba’s Teams Matt Dunstone and Reid Carruthers and Northern Ontario’s Team John Epping.

So there was a level of satisfaction for Team de Jong after Nunavut conceeded the game in the eighth end.

“We played really well all six games,” said de Jong. “We’ve just come up against really good teams — and like the five best in Canada — pretty much right away. We had to grind through it. The results didn’t come our way until today, but we knew that eventually we would get the win under our belts, and hopefully, we’ll continue for the rest of the week here.”

de Jong and teammates Chester, Carpenter and Cseke are all Brier rookies and have been leaning on the experience of Horvath, competing in his third Canadian men’s championship, and Miki who won this event in 2000 with skip Greg McAulay (the last time British Columbia won a Montana’s Brier title) and has served as a coach or alternate for British Columbia for the past two years.

However, even with the veterans on the team, it still hasn’t prepared them for being the hometown favourites. de Jong reflects on the opening weekend in particular, with nearly 5,000 strong spectators firmly rooted in their support of the Vancouver Island team.

“This is one of the coolest experiences of my life,” said de Jong. “Playing the best teams in Canada right off the bat and having the crowd behind us against all the teams, even against Gushue. Fans come from everywhere to cheer for him. So to have the fans cheering for us over him, it was a really special moment and it’s something I’ll never forget.”

In other Pool A games, Canada’s Team Gushue (5-0; St. John’s, N.L.) stayed perfect with an 8-3 win against New Brunswick’s Team James Grattan (2-3; Oromocto); Manitoba’s Team Carruthers (5-1; Winnipeg) stole away an 8-6 victory from Northern Ontario’s Team John Epping (4-2; Sudbury); and Manitoba’s Team Dunstone (4-1; Winnipeg) needed an extra end to defeat Newfoundland & Labrador’s Team Ty Dilello (1-4; St. John’s) 5-4.

Alberta’s Team Kevin Koe (2-3; Calgary) had the afternoon bye in Pool A.

The Montana’s Brier continues Tuesday with a draw at 6:30 p.m. (all times Pacific).

Live scoring, standings and statistics for the 2025 Montana’s Brier are available at www.curling.ca/scoreboard/.

TSN and RDS2 will provide complete coverage of the 2025 Montana’s Brier. CLICK HERE for the complete schedule.

For ticket information for the 2025 Montana’s Brier, go to www.curling.ca/2025brier/tickets/

This story will be available in French as soon as possible at www.curling.ca/2025brier/nouvelles/?lang=fr