Northern Ontario's Horgan brothers adding strong branches to family curling tree

During the seventh end of Northern Ontario's Wednesday night win over Ontario at the Canadian Junior Curling Championships, 15-year-old Jake Horgan leapt from the hack at about a million miles and hour and then gave his rock an extra shove as he released it.

Seconds later, blammo. Five stones were gone from play.

It was something. Not the usual peel shot, I assumed. I was wrong, apparently.

“That’s a normal peel weight," said Horgan after the game. "That's what I throw every time.”

The Northern Ontario Junior Men's Curling Team has ridden shots like that all the way to a berth in this Sunday's final, to be held at the Stratford Rotary Complex in Stratford, Ontario. The team - with Maxime Blais at lead and Nick Bissonnette at second - has a powerful punch at vice with young Jake, and another one at skip in the form of Jake's 17-year-old brother, Tanner Horgan.

With their father, Gerry, serving as coach, the Horgans might just be on their way to world domination, along with their sisters Tracy (Fleury) and Jenn, who were recently upended by Krista McCarville in the final of the Northern Ontario Scotties. 'World domination' is a phrase that makes the Horgans laugh and not necessarily because it seems like an outlandish proposition.

“When they were real little, says Gerry with a chuckle, "they used to have a shot called ‘world domination.'”

“It was a takeout weight,” adds Tanner. Then Jake jumps in. "That’s where you would throw it as hard as you can and it doesn’t even matter if you hit anything,” he laughs.

“We had to retire that shot,” says Tanner.

That's because as hard as they can throw it - and these boys can throw it hard, it's a pretty well-known pillar of curling knowledge that you have to be able to draw in order to win. With a record of 9 and 1 heading into this Sunday's final, Team Horgan has that part of their game humming along nicely as well.

“I think what’s bringing us success this week is we have the draws as well,” says Tanner, conceding that there is lots more fun to be had in those upweight missiles, but that you can't really exploit them successfully unless you have a lead. “It’s nice to be up when you have that weapon," he says, "but you can’t get up by doing that.”

As was illustrated by Jake's quintuple takeout against Ontario, the team has power aplenty to bail out when it needs to move some granite. Of Jake, Tanner says he was wowed by little brother's talents in that area early on. “He was the only 9-year-old that I knew that could peel as well as he could. He would slide out like a normal takeout and then just shove it," he smiles. "As long as it’s working now.”

“The rock weighed as much as me but I could somehow get it moving,” Jake laughs.

“You’ve gotta have the strength to do it accurately,” explains Gerry, who then admits that his sons had growing to do as curlers before they could experience the breakthrough they've enjoyed this week. It wasn't that the boys didn't believe in the draw game, but that it took awhile for them to hone the skill. Now, they're confident in hitting the four-foot on a regular basis.

“I think we draw as well as any other team here,” says Tanner.

Both Tanner and Jake are representing Northern Ontario at Junior Nationals for the third consecutive time, along with Blais. They finished 5 and 5 in both 2014 and 2015, learning a few lessons along the way, determined to make this the year that they would climb to the gold medal podium. That would be big for a curling jurisdiction that hasn't won a junior championship in twenty years.

The Horgans have a keen sense of Northern Ontario curling history and an evident respect for it. Tanner knew off the top of his head that Jeff Currie was the last skip to win a national junior championship for N.O., in 1996. Gerry, meantime, knows his place in the lore of northern curling and stresses that it is a humble one.

“I was a good club player," he says, shrugging and noting that his teams got onto the playdown trail but never into a championship. "Not as good as them," he continues, gesturing towards Jake and Tanner. "I find I’m a better coach than player.”

“Our dad got us into it really early,” says Tanner, applauding his father's decision to have the lads do more than just practice a ton before he gave them a taste of competition.

“We started playing games earlier than everyone else," Tanner continues. "Most programs, you have to wait a few years to start playing games. I disagree with that. I think you should start playing games right off the bat, because that’s what’s interesting, right? It shouldn’t be just practice.”

Gerry, as coach, may have a key role to play should the Horgans look to put a family stamp on future championships. Could the Horgan girls team with the Horgan boys and go gunning for a gaggle of mixed championships?

“We do have a plan for the next few years," nods Tanner. "Me, Jake, and Jenn and Trace, we’re gonna form a mixed team. It depends on certain things over the next few years but I would love to do mixed and see what we can do there. Depends on our schedules. They’re very busy, right?”

All of the Horgans, Tracy, Jenn, Tanner and Jake, are primarily curlers, when it comes to their sporting endeavours. They each came to that naturally, says Gerry, who maintains that he never pointed his kids one way or another when it came to sports.

“All four kids, they were into six different sports like all kids are, to try them. Soccer, tennis, basketball, volleyball, gymnastics, you name it. And all four of them chose curling as their number one sport.”

“I think it’s just because curling’s such a great game," he adds. "I didn’t overly push. I think the game stands on its own.”

So, a Horgan curling crusade may be on the horizon. Before that, however, there is the 2016 junior championship to contest an then something very special for the boys to get under their belts.

That's because their next stop is the Northern Ontario Men's Championship, next month in North Bay. This season, Curling Canada adjusted its rules to allow junior teams to compete for spots at the senior level and Team Horgan is in. “Our first game is against Brad Jacobs,” says Tanner. “We’re just prolonging their pre-competition practice,” quips Jake.

This will be a big, big moment for the youngsters. Team Horgan and Team Jacobs have never before met in a game.

When they do, it will be like mirror images competing against each other. When you watch Team Horgan play, you see an awful lot of Team Jacobs in their style.

“Watching one of our games, you can tell," says Jake. "We pretty much slide like them.”

“I’ve always thought their deliveries were just fantastic,” chimes in Tanner.

“They are definitely considered the best team in Northern Ontario," he continues. "They are the standard if you want to move on in Northern Ontario. Playing them, we’ll just get to see how far off we are.”

That's for another day, a couple of weeks down the road, though.

Right now, Team Horgan will focus on Sunday's final and hope to build a lead on whichever opponent (It will be either Manitoba or B.C.) they face. Getting a lead, you see, means they can showcase a little of that leg drive power and unleash the takeouts. And that is a whole lot of fun, right?

"Oh, yeah," says Tanner.

"Tons of fun," says Jake.