When the Weyburn Comprehensive boys curling team hits the ice now, no one laughs anymore. The foursome of skip Shaun Hart, third David Currie, second Matt Nyeste and lead Blaine Weimer have only been curling together for about a 18 months but they have already qualified for the junior men's southern playdowns which Estevan will host from Friday, Jan 7 to Sunday, Jan. 9.

As with many teams, the beginning days together weren't a pretty sight.

"When we had the boys starting in the men's league, they got whipped every night," said coach Garnet Hart. "Since then, there has been great improvement in their play. They will win more than their share of those games now. I started to see this improvement in last year's school playdowns."

"We have started to work together as a team now," said Currie.

The team credits their coaches, Garnet Hart and Jim Currie for helping them achieve their success, but the coaches see things differently.

"A lot of their improvement has come from their own initiative," said Garnet. "Other teams I've coached did not have the same initiative and they haven't gone as far either."

While all four have been playing the game for a minimum of three years, others, like Shaun Hart, have been curling since Grade 4.

"My father got me into curling," said Shaun. "The first couple of years I wasn't into the game because I would rather have played hockey."

Others, like Currie, played both hockey and curling for a time, before deciding to switch to curling for good.

"I started to fade off hockey and at that time, curling became a larger part of my plans," said Currie. "You feel you are a more important part of a curling team than you do on a hockey team."

That's not to say there weren't other incentives.

"Curling teams get better prizes than hockey teams do," said Currie.

School curling programs were the catalyst for the other team members to take up the sport. Matt Nyeste started curling in the school programs in Wawota before he moved to Weyburn. Shaun, Currie and Weimer were all involved in the junior curling program in Weyburn.

While all four freely admit they did not see themselves becoming competitive curlers when they started, they now stay involved in the sport precisely for the competition.

"I am very competitive," said Shaun. "I want to win every game we play."

"The drive to keep getting better makes me want to keep playing," said Weimer.

Intensity on the ice is now a major part of the team's on-ice persona, something they combine with the their competitive juices. This was not the case when these players were curling just to have fun, spending time just throwing rocks and having fun.

"In the Lampman bonspiel A side semifinal, everyone was in the game and everyone knew they were in the game," Garnet said. "You could see the butterflies all the boys had, but you could also see everyone wanted to do what they had to for the win."

Having four competitive curlers on the ice can lead to the odd disagreement on what shot to call. All teams experience this from time to time and can sometimes affect the team's unity.

"We don't get mad at each other," said Currie. We do get mad about a shot which doesn't go well."

In Estevan, the Comprehensive School rink, consisting of two 16-year-olds and two 15-year-olds will face rinks with up to five more years experience. This disparity does not scare them off of their uphill battle to return to Weyburn to compete in the junior men's provincial championships in January.

"I think we will do well there," said Shaun.

Just about every member of this team lists Sandra Schmirler as their favourite curler for her style of play and skill.

"She has brought a lot of spirit to the game," said Currie. "I watch curling on television now because of her."

There was one exception, Nyeste's favourite player is Jeff Stoughton, a world-champion skip from Winnipeg.

"He's a very competitive curler on the ice," said Nyeste. I'd like to be as good as he is one day."

While several years down the road, the Hart rink plans on staying a team after high school. All have expressed an interest in playing the men's circuit together, competing in provincial playdowns for a chance to play in curling's higher level competitions.

Because Hart and Currie are one year older than Weimer and Nyeste, this team will be separated for one year. They would be eligible to curl in the junior men's provincial playoffs, but not the high school competition.

The intense desire to taste the fruits of success as a foursome will likely drive this particular team to becoming a force on the Weyburn and provincial curling scene for years to come.