A Montana’s Brier title; entering the Canadian Mixed Doubles Curling Championship this Saturday in Surrey as the fourth ranked team in the country; and topping things off, a new team for 2026-2027, one that sees him joining forces with a former world junior champion, 2021 Brier champion and six-time Brier medal winner.
The month of March 2026 has been / will be one to remember for local curler Jake Horgan.
The 25 year-old who now lives in Mississauga with his older brother and teammate (Tanner) had barely had the chance to process a disappointing loss to the Sandy MacEwan rink in the Northern Ontario Curling Association final when he was approached by Matt Dunstone to join the Manitoba entry as the fifth/alternate at the 2026 Montana’s Brier in St John’s (Newfoundland).
For as much as his in-game appearances were limited, Horgan not only walked away with the impressive individual trophy that is presented to each team member following the Dunstone rink victory over Kevin Koe (Alberta) in the Brier final, but also armed with the knowledge that not every elite curler is equipped to step in as an ideal addition on a squad that only weeks earlier would have constituted a very worthy opponent.
“The priority is to find that person who is a good teammate, an easy guy to be around, a low maintenance guy – and someone who brings along an uplifting attitude,” said Horgan. “Personally, that’s what my teams in the past have looked for in a fifth.”
Knowledge of that kind of a combination of skill-sets and personal character traits comes via the countless crossing of paths in the world of elite Canadian curling. Horgan’s battles with Team Dunstone front-enders E.J. Harnden and Ryan Harnden dated back a decade or more to NOCA Youth playdowns.
At roughly that same age of 15 or so, Horgan recalled first going shot for shot with Matt Dunstone and his current vice, Colton Lott, the trio part of a junior bonspiel in Ottawa. While these memories were shared over the course of a week together on “The Rock”, there were far more pragmatic job duties that were entrusted to Horgan.
“It’s also important to find someone who can help out with rock matching,” he stated, outlining the nightly task that typically occurs at the very final practice times for each team, alloted to each team following the final draw of the day.
“It takes a lot of skill to be able to throw the rock in a very readable way, a very accurate way – and to do that over and over again in a short amount of time.”
While teams who maintain a four person lineup at national championships can certainly make due, it is hardly an ideal scenario for those rinks that hold gold medal aspirations. “It can be pretty gruelling to play a couple of games in a day and then having to throw those extra stones, day after day.”
“I know they (Team Dunstone) were very appreciative of bringing along someone like me to relieve them of that task.”
Beyond that, there was a mental component, one that Horgan felt strongly about given his very strong knowledge of both the team that he was joining and the journey they had travelled in recent years. “I was hoping to bring along a little perspective for the guys,” said Horgan.
“Their team has been together for two full years and have been through many highs, but also many lows as a team, losing a Brier final and losing a (Olympic) Trials final. I wanted to remind them just how amazing they are.”
In fact, for as much as he was clearly biased, Horgan had little doubt that a national crown was well within the reach of Dunstone and company when play began in Newfoundland on February 27th. “In my opinion, they were 100% the team most prepared to win the Brier,” stressed Horgan.
“All they had to do was go out and win it – and part of my role was just reminding them of that.”
While the Ontario-based tandem of Jake Horgan and Kira Brunton are most certainly in the mix, it would be folly to suggest that the pair that have spent only about a gazillion hours in local curling clubs throughout their youth would be considered as pre-event favourites in any way when the Mixed Doubles nationals kick off in B.C. on Saturday morning.
But with 12 of the 28 team field advancing to the playoff round on Thursday, the team which sits behind only 2026 Olympians Jocelyn Peterman & Brett Gallant, as well as the duos of Katie Ford/Oliver Campbell (KW Granite Club – ON) and Laura Neil/Scott McDonald (St Thomas CC) are well positioned to secure a top-two placement in their pool of seven teams.
Most interesting perhaps is the fact that all of the above, while certainly newsworthy, may have taken a backseat this week to the news that Jake (vice) and Tanner Horgan (second) will be joining forces next year with Alberta-based curlers Brendan Bottcher (skip) and Geoff Walker (lead).
Bottcher and Walker had spent the past two years curling with the Canadian curling icon that is Brad Gushue, the 45 year-old Maritimer having announced last fall that the 2025-2026 season would be his final one in the men’s open bracket. As for the Horgan clan, they depart from Team (John) Epping after a highly successful run that saw the rink rise to #8 in the world at their peak.
