Team McNamara leads the way in Simcoe qualifier

Jordan McNamara calls for sweeping during his team’s final game Sunday at the Curling Ontario men’s provincial qualifier event at the Simcoe Curling Club.

Chris Abbott

Editor

Some of the best Curling Ontario men’s teams hit the ice at the Simcoe Curling Club on the weekend for a three-day provincial qualifier.

The top four teams qualified for the 2026 Farm and Food Care Ontario Men’s Curling Championships, Jan. 4-11 in Elmira, where the winning team will advance to the 2026 Brier, Canada’s national men’s curling championship.

Leading the way Sunday was the team of Jordan McNamara (skip), Colton Daley (vice), Jacob Clarke (second) and Brenden Laframboise (lead) based at the Rideau Curling Club in Ottawa.

“We all play (and practice) at 10 different clubs because Ottawa has so many clubs,” said McNamara, noting their team’s fifth man is Sam Steep. “We do a five-man rotation.”

McNamara, Daley and Laframboise were on a team that did not qualify for the Ontario championship in 2024, so they are looking forward to tackling their first men’s provincial championship.

McNamara, 24, who missed all but one year of his junior career during Covid, played front end last season. His team lost in the U18 Ontario finals in 2019.

“We were on the cusp, probably, of being the junior team to beat. We were all 18… then Covid happened.”

The transition from U18 to men’s was challenging, he admitted.

“Last year, playing in men’s, I found my love for the game again. It was a crucial year for me. Now we’re back and we’re going to the Tankard, so that’s pretty exciting.”

A rival to Courtland’s Jayden King, who’s team is ranked 4th in Canada and is the No. 1 seed in Ontario, McNamara is looking forward to elevating their game on the provincial stage.

“We have had a really good season,” said McNamara. “So we went into this qualifier knowing that we were the team to beat. We played in a Grand Slam event in Alberta, lost in the final to a really good Japanese team. And from there our season just kind of accelerated.

“Coming into this weekend, we had a big target on our backs. We fell sAhort in our second game, a close game. Something about this team, when our backs are against the wall, somehow we thrive on that.”

Sunday afternoon in their final game against a team skipped by Brent Ross from Harriston, Team McNamara gave up four in the first end.

“We all looked at each other, and it’s like ‘We’re fine.’ I think that’s where we have an advantage over a lot of men’s teams. It’s really hard to get us fazed.”

McNamara said the ice was a bit different, a hair straighter than two of their earlier games, and that took some adjusting. But they did adjust after the third end to get their final win.