Okanagan curling team second at Saville Shootout in Edmonton
Published 1:00 pm Wednesday, September 16, 2026
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New rink, nice result.
Vernon’s Jim Cotter returned to competitive men’s team curling with a second-place finish at the 20-team Saville Shootout in Edmonton.
Cotter, 51, fell 5-4 in the final Monday, Sept. 14, to Benny Kapp of Fuessen, Germany. The Cotter rink collected $4,000 for second place. Kapp pocketed $6,000.
Playing with Cotter are third Jared Kolomaya of Kamloops, second Connor Deane of Kelowna, lead Erik Colwell of Vernon, and alternate player Brad Wood of Penticton.
The new rink went 5-2, sandwiching all of its victories between an opening-draw loss (10-7 to Evan Van Amsterdam of Edmonton) and the finals defeat to Kapp.
Cotter opened the final with single-point steals in the first two ends for a 2-0 lead. Kapp replied in the third end with a deuce with the final rock to tie the game, then took a 4-2 lead at the fourth-end break with a steal of two.
After a fifth-end blank, the Germans stole another point in the sixth end to go up 5-2. The B.C. rink replied with a single point in seven, and stole one point in the final end.
Cotter and company defeated Vancouver’s Matthew Blandford, Edmonton’s Peter Hlushak, and Carl deConnick Smith of Fox Valley, Sask., to go 3-1 in the preliminary round, good for a playoff spot.
In the quarterfinals, the Cotter rink scored a 6-5, extra-end win over Jaxon Hiebert of Edmonton, who forced the additional end with a deuce in the eighth.
Cotter advanced to the final with a 4-1 win over Mitchell Kopytko of Kamloops.
The new Cotter team, said Curling Zone website, came together in April after skip Cody Tanaka from Kamloops left the team he helped lead to the B.C. men’s championship, and a spot in the Montana’s Brier in Newfoundland and Labrador, where the team went 1-7.
Tanaka’s departure left Kolomaya without a team.
For 24 hours.
That’s when Cotter came calling, and Kolomaya jumped at the chance to play with the man he describes as arguably the best B.C. curler of all-time.
Cotter’s resumé backs up Kolomaya’s claim.
He’s a 10-time Brier participant, including runner-up in his hometown of Kamloops in 2014, Olympic Trials silver medalist, Grand Slam of Curling event winner, and is a 12-time B.C. champion.
Cotter spent last winter coaching Corryn Brown’s Kamloops rink to the B.C. women’s title and a trip to the Scotties Tournament of Hearts national finals. He also found time to play doubles curling with his daughter, Jaelyn.
Deane and Colwell both skipped/played in the 2025 B.C. men’s playoffs.
Colwell threw second stones for Jordan Venance’s runner-up team.
Wood has four Brier appearances as B.C.’s alternate, all with Cotter.
Cotter’s new rink is slated to play at home Oct. 1 to 4 in the Prestige Curling Classic at the Vernon Curling Club.