Curling is the one sport where a 45-year-old could still be considered in the prime of their career and that’s the way it’s been for skips at the Montana’s Brier for years now. 

Retired Canadian legends like Alberta’s Kevin Martin, Manitoba’s Jeff Stoughton and Ontario’s Glenn Howard all played into their 50s — and for Howard, even into his early 60s. The longer their careers lasted, the better they seemed to perform on the ice.

Even current players such as four-time Brier champion Kevin Koe, who is 50-years-old, and six-time Brier champion Brad Gushue, at 44-years-old, are still in the prime of their careers. 

But change is coming, and fast. 

Curling Canada’s youth is here and could be ready to challenge on the big stage as early as this year’s Montana’s Brier, which runs from Feb. 28 to Mar. 9 in Kelowna, B.C.

Prince Edward Island’s Tyler Smith (26) is already heading to his fifth Brier while Nova Scotia’s Owen Purcell (24), Saskatchewan’s Rylan Kleiter (26) and Ontario’s Sam Mooibroek (25) all are entering their first. 

Purcell punched his ticket to Kelowna by winning the Nova Scotia Tankard back on Jan. 19, defeating Kendal Thompson 8-5 in the final and finally getting over the hump after placing second at the last two provincial championships.

Even though he is the youngest skip in the Brier this year, that doesn’t faze him. Because for him, this is just “perfect practice.”

To set the stage for the Brier, Purcell joined Sportsnet for an exclusive one-on-one interview where he spoke about winning the Nova Scotia Tankard, what the team has to do to have success in Kelowna and how the youth serum that has been injected into the Brier field is a positive thing for Curling Canada. 

Sportsnet: Tell me about your experience winning the Nova Scotia Tankard for the first time? 

Purcell: Yeah, it was insane. It was a great way to cap off probably some of the best curling that we’ve ever played together as a team. We were extremely solid, and it was nice to finally be rewarded for hard work that we were putting into the entire season. Obviously, I lost the final two years in a row before, so it feels good to really get over that hump. 

Do you think this was the toughest year in terms of competition in a Nova Scotia Tankard that you’ve competed in? 

I would say yeah, like all the teams were difficult. Everybody’s so insanely talented and we played insanely well and we [had] close games with everybody. … You’re basically playing just to have the score close and then hopefully you have hammer in the last end or you’re up by a couple points and you draw the scoreboard a little bit. But yeah, it’s a different beast man, I’m telling you, than playing in the other events during the season.

Let’s transition to British Columbia and the Brier, what are you most excited about? 

Well, I’m excited because honestly a lot of the players that I’ve played against in juniors, they’re going to this thing and I’m really interested for that. A lot of the players that I was playing against in the Langley juniors, they’re going to the Brier in Kelowna, so it’s kind of interesting that we’re having a little bit of a 2020 Langley junior reunion at the Brier in Kelowna. It’s pretty cool. 

The youth movement is indeed taking over. Can you give me your initial thoughts on what the movement means for curling in Canada? 

Yeah, I think we’re starting to see a shift in the younger teams starting to make their way into the top events like the Brier and even the Slams and I think that just goes to show how good the youth development is in Canada, especially at U25. They’re doing really good at fostering the development there, and I believe a lot of that has to do with the next-gen program, but more than that, I think our culture in Canada for that age group is really good for just having lots of very motivated young curlers that they play against. They play in the spiels with all these top teams and then they’re like, you know what, we can contend with these guys. So, it’s becoming less and less of that starstruck feeling when you’re playing against them. I think that we’re starting to see that the younger teams are really buying into, we know what we have to do when we go out there, and we’re starting to see those teams actually win against some of the older teams now.

Do you think Curling Canada is in a great spot considering what we’re seeing from the youth movement? 

Yeah, I would say we’re in a great spot, but the other thing too is that internationally a lot of the other countries are in great spots as well, like in Switzerland and Scotland. It’s kind of difficult because they put a lot of their national funding into specific teams, whereas Canada can’t exactly do that because they’re just too many teams, but I would say that Curling Canada is in a good spot because our next-gen teams are up and coming and we’re able to contend with the top guys. 

Are you at all shocked by the youth movement that is happening? 

I don’t think so because I’ve watched these guys for many years now, like the top guys, and they’re starting to get a little bit older, but us young guys, we’re putting in the work and we’re doing everything that we can to catch up, and I think that even in a couple more years like it might be might be even more the case. 

What is your personal goal for your first Brier? 

I think it’s really easy to get caught up in records, percentages and that sort of thing, but we’ve been working hard and training so much that I think that we’re just hoping to go and a good goal for us is that we left it all out on the ice and that we all played our best and we all played our hardest. 

How crucial is it to be strong from the opening draw for you guys? 

You want to be strong from the get-go, but the only thing that comes with that too is that it’s a little bit of a marathon and not exactly a sprint and that you don’t want to gas yourself out very early in the event. I heard somebody say it during Scotties that you don’t want your B game to be bad enough that you lose but you need to pace yourself so that you can play well at the right times, but you need to play hard because I mean everybody’s good, right? 

What do you think you’re going to take away from this Brier? 

I think the thing I’m going to learn from the most is the atmosphere, just being able to play in an environment like that, with all the fans in a giant arena. We’re going to be playing at our peak, everybody else is going to be playing at theirs and the chance to play on some of the best ice in the best arena with the best crowd against the best teams, it’s perfect practice. 

No matter what the result is during the week, will this be the most special moment for you in your curling career up to this point? 

Absolutely, I mean this has been my dream ever since I started playing and it still feels crazy. This has been my dream ever since I was a little boy so, it’s pretty amazing that I’m finally getting to live out that dream after 17 years of hard work.