YORKTON - Steve Laycock who was born at Saltcoats, and honed his early curling skills in Yorkton, will pilot his team to the upcoming SaskTel Provincial Tankard to be held in Saskatoon starting Jan. 30.
But before provincials the Laycock rink was in Yorkton this weekend as the Yorkton Curling Club hosted the Sask Curling Tour's Men's and Women's Players Championship.
For Laycock it was sort of a curling roots homecoming, explaining he played many games on the Yorkton ice.
“My first couple of years it was family curling in Saltcoats, but once I was in high school most of it was here,” he told Yorkton This Week in an interview in the club waiting room.
In that regard it will be a Tankard run on home ice too, as Laycock lives in Saskatoon now.
That fact, and that the Canadian championships in Regina, have certainly been motivation for Laycock this season.
“It’s something that doesn’t happen very often,” he admitted.
So having already qualified for the Tankard is sort of step one for the team.
Laycock said the team – lead Brayden Grindheim, second Chris Haichert and third Shain Meachem -- has been building toward the provincial event, starting way back last September.
“The first event we didn’t make the playoffs,” he said, adding since then the team has been making strides including playoff berths, but without the big wins.
“We’ve beat some really good teams,” he said, adding he feels they are now curling their best of the season.
The key now, at events like the one in Yorkton, heading to the Tankard is pulling everything together as a team.
It’s a case of “getting all four of us making the same sort of shots in the same way,” offered Laycock, adding with two team members from Swift Current and two in Saskatoon they haven’t practised as a full unit as often as they might like.
In the next few weeks that will be a focus “to have time together all four of us,” he said.
So will there be more pressure as a home town favourite at the Tankard in Saskatoon ... And, will playing in front of hometown fans in Yorkton help with that?
Laycock said he actually likes having the fan support, knowing friends and family are there wanting him to do well.
“You need that pressure to win,” he said.
