MEDICINE HAT, Alta. — Peter Hlushak didn’t think he’d get the opportunity to play in his first Grand Slam major tournament at 19 years old.
Hlushak skips the University of Alberta Golden Bears junior team out of Edmonton — featuring third Sahil Dalrymple, second Tyler Derksen and lead Josh Lussier — and won the Saville U25 Challenge satellite event on home ice last month to qualify for this week’s P&H Masters at Co-op Place.
Although his time in the tournament ended early with a winless run through the preliminary round, Hlushak said on Friday it was a really cool experience.
“I definitely learned a lot about how good these teams are and how much work we have to do to get there,” Hlushak said. “But we're motivated to get back here in the future because it's just an awesome event to take part in.”
Hlushak doesn’t have to look far to see others who have followed the path he's on. You could throw a (curling) rock at Co-op Place and hit a UofA grad, from Brendan Bottcher to Selena Sturmay and Serena Gray-Withers. Those are just the skips, with Team Koe’s Johnson Tao and Karrick Martin, Team Sturmay’s Danielle Schmiemann and Paige Papley, Team Van Amsterdam’s Jason Ginter and Parker Konschuh, and Team Gray-Withers’ Catherine Clifford and Zoe Cinnamon also among the alumni on the ice from the Golden Bears and Pandas program.
From students to masters, at an event literally called the Masters.
Bottcher, who skipped the Golden Bears to a Canadian university title in 2012, said it’s incredible that so many players who came up through the program are competing on Grand Slam ice this week.
“The amount of top athletes that program has put out is remarkable,” said Bottcher, who is at the head of the class with one Brier title and five Grand Slam championships. “I think it's really a generation, kind of my generation and the generation behind me, that’s just littered with a lot of us, and it's great. I hope the program stays strong well into the future.”
Sturmay won the Canadian university women’s title throwing second stones for Kristen Streifel in 2018 and skipped the Pandas to the championship in 2020.
“I think it's really cool,” said Sturmay, who also qualified for the P&H Masters by winning a satellite event. “UofA has done a really good job of creating a culture around being the best that there is at that level, and I think that's kind of created a little bit of, I guess, a positive feedback loop where the curlers coming up behind you want to be like you and want to be better than you.
“Honestly, it's just growing the sport through competition, and I think they've done a really good job with that.”
Success breeds success. Gray-Withers followed in the footsteps of Sturmay and won back-to-back Canadian university titles in 2023 and 2024.
“The program is awesome,” said Gray-Withers, who captured the Jr. GSOC U25 women’s title last season and also made her top-flight series debut this week. “All of us came through as very technically sound players, so to be able to all be here together and perform how we want to perform is really awesome.”
Hlushak competed on the men’s side of that Jr. GSOC U25 tournament.
“It's pretty crazy to go from that in one year, but we had a good week at the satellite event and luckily enough got the chance to come here,” he said.
Schmiemann coached Hlushak in mixed doubles last year and said it was fun playing beside his team at the P&H Masters.
“It's just fun when you look around and you see a lot of the people coming through that same system,” she said. “It's kind of the system that has set a lot of us up for success moving into women's and men's and stuff like that, so it's really great to see those young guys get the shot to be out here, too.”
Schmiemann won the Canadian university title in 2016 with skip Kelsey Calvert and again two years later with Streifel. She also earned gold for Canada at the 2017 Winter Universiade.
It can be daunting when the bar keeps rising, but the success rate speaks for itself.
“I think the expectations are set pretty high when you're a part of that program. There's a lot expected of you,” Schmiemann said. “You're expected to put in a lot of work, but the success that comes with that proves that there's a reason behind everything that they do.
“The culture that has been developed there, especially in recent years, is just a lot of fun to be a part of that program. That group is a really great group of people, so just what a fun thing to be a part of.”
Bottcher sported the green and gold during his early appearances in the Grand Slams over a decade ago, but his learning began at home watching the famed Ferbey Four.
“I grew up curling in Sherwood Park, and I'd look a couple sheets over and Randy (Ferbey) and Dave (Nedohin) and the guys were out practising. Then when I moved into the city, I was often a couple sheets away from Kevin (Martin) and the guys practising. That has an impact just seeing what they do and how they talk to each other, but how hard they work,” Bottcher said.
“It really kind of opens your eyes as a younger player, like the commitment that it's going to take to get there, but it's also kind of inspiring to see them out there every day and know that if you keep working you're on that path.”
With Hlushak seeing Bottcher and other UofA alumni on the ice, that’s now fuelling and motivating him.
“It's really inspiring to see that all those UofA athletes have done it before, and that kind of shows us that we can do it too if we just keep working hard and seeing where it takes us,” he said.
Although Schmiemann has won bronze medals at Canadian championships in women’s and mixed doubles, she’s still getting used to being a role model for others.
“Honestly, sometimes I have a hard time believing it. I feel like I'm still looking up to people out there that I'm competing against,” Schmiemann said. “So to know that other people are watching us and looking up to us is really cool. You have to remind yourself of that sometimes, too.”
