Curler’s Corner: Three Kamloops curlers heading to Montana’s Brier in St. John’s
Curler’s Corner is a column written by the Kamloops Curling Club’s Randy Nelson. This column will highlight moments of Tournament Capital curling history and noteworthy athletes from over the decades.
The Montana’s Brier is the dream of any competitive men’s curler in Canada.
Three Kamloops curlers will realize that dream this year in St. John’s, N.L., from Feb. 27th to March 8th.
Jared Kolomaya, Mitchell Kopytko and Coburn Fadden won the B.C. Provincials in early January when they teamed up with skip Cody Tanaka from Richmond. It will be the first time in 20 years a team of mostly Kamloops curlers has been to the Brier (Kamloops’ own Jim Cotter has been to the Brier 10 times, curling out of Kelowna and Vernon where he lives).
Kolomaya learned to curl on a three-sheet club with natural ice in St. Martin, MB. His dad was the ice maker, meaning Kolomaya was on the ice at age 4. He got into curling in school, and would travel up to three and a half hours to compete in events in Winnipeg.
In his junior years, he would head off after school and drive between one and one and a half hours in prairie winters to play in a competitive league in nearby Ashburn.
After junior curling, Kolomaya curled with Willie Lyburn of Winnipeg (previously from Scotland) for a couple of years where they made it to pre-Olympic trials in 2017. The team was invited to China to play in an international curling event where the Corryn Brown team was also playing on the women’s side of the event.
Brown’s second, Sam Fisher, and Kolomaya may have been a bit distracted from curling. Kolomaya would move to Kamloops in March of 2018 to connect with Fisher, proving that curling is more than just a game.
Kolomaya’s curling in B.C. took him to the 2022 Brier with Brent Pierce, making the 2026 Brier his second run at the national event.
He was considering taking some time away from curling when Kopytko and Fadden convinced him to team up with Tanaka this season. In their first year together, they made it to the semi-final in two of six events. Then, they won the provincials to make it to the Brier!
Kolomaya also played in the National Slo-pitch Championships in 2025 in Leduc, Alta., where he swatted 10 home runs and 30 RBI.
Kamloops’ own Kopytko plays second on the Tanaka team. In 2010, Kopytko was 9 years old and saw an ad for junior curling. He joined up and played in the inter-city league for several years.
Kamloops hosted the 2014 Brier, and Kopytko was chosen as one of the junior stars to be with team Kevin Koe of Alberta. The inspiration of the Brier and Koe winning the event sparked a dream to one day play in it. Thirteen years later, it’s happening.
Kopytko played in U-18 for four years, qualifying for provincials once as a skip. He teamed up with Colwell of Vernon his last year of U-18 in 2019 where they made it to Nationals, all the way to the final.
After the COVID-19 pandemic, Kopytko moved into men’s curling and played a year with Sean Geall until Fadden moved to Kamloops. The two played two years with Rob Nobert, before approaching Kolomaya and convincing him to play with Tanaka.
Rarely does a new team succeed and end up in the Brier, but the team gelled quickly and handed Jason Montgomery his seventh loss in a B.C. final.
Fadden was born and raised in Fort MacMurray, Alta. He started curling at age 9. In 2013, Fort MacMurray hosted the Junior Nationals where Brown won the women’s and Matt Dunstone (then from Manitoba) won the men’s.
Ironically, Dunstone would later move to Kamloops where the attraction of Brown’s third, Erin Pincott, was greater than living in Manitoba (kidding of course, Manitoba winters can be nice too).
Fadden was inspired by being a flag bearer in the national event. He and his two brothers played in U-18 and juniors, but there were only three junior teams in Fort Mac and travel to curling events made it difficult to get competitive games.
In 2018-19, Fadden and his brothers won the Alberta High School Championships. That same year they also qualified for the U-18 provincials. COVID-19 interrupted Fadden’s junior curling, and the family moved to Kamloops in 2021.
He played in a couple of junior men’s provincials in B.C. before joining Kopytko to play in the men’s playdowns. Twenty two year old Fadden will be one of the youngest curlers in the Brier, which will certainly bring lasting memories and an increased desire to do it again and again.
Kolomaya, Kopytko and Fadden have never been to Newfoundland and look forward to the sold-out event where they will be playing some of the top teams in the country.
Kamloops wishes them the best of luck in representing our province and the City of Kamloops.
