Grant Bjornerud may or may not have had his work at the curling rink cut out for him in the past, but he has it cut out for him now.
Once part of a two-man coaching staff at the Yorkton Regional High School's curling program, he and Larry Folk both had the task of overseeing everything curling at the YRHS.
Now only one of them does.
When Folk left the Regional at the spring of last year, it meant that it was all up to Bjornerud to make sure the school could carry on its strong play on pretty much every curling rink that they ever found themselves on.
Two years ago, the senior boys' team got into trouble early at the Saskatchewan provincials where a kid named Shwaga was the skip, but now he's long gone and apparently it's up to someone else to keep it going.
But with the departure of Folk, there is now only one coach left to help everyone from the youngest Gr. 9 student to the most experienced Gr. 12 to learn the game that's reportedly taken a beating numbers-wise over the past few years at least.
Bjornerud has apparently put any worries that the curling program may die out to rest, for now anyways.
With the skip of the mixed team, as well as his teammates having some experience under their belts, they worked to add to the Regional's medal count this past weekend at the Yorkton Curling Club.Bjornerud's Regional mixed team capped off a pretty good weekend, in which he said later in the tournament that the team played "consistent all the way through".
They are: Graham Campbell, Lisa Maddaford, Lindsay Harvey and Kelsey Campbell.
That's not a bad thing to be able to say about a bunch of Gr. 9s who are supposedly still trying to learn everything they can about the game.
During a post-tournament media session, following the spiel, Bjornerud talked more about the concept of developing the school's youngest talent, as well as a process of picking out the youngest talent from a handful of local elementary schools.
It does not sound like the easiest thing to do but when a high school coach talks about it going pretty good, that's got to be a good sign.
He added something about how maybe in some years' time, a Gr. 6 student in attendance at the junior spiel will end up curling for Bjornerud when he or she gets to high school.
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