Lacombe’s own Darren Moulding will be playing in the America’s Zone Challenge. Team Brazil and Team Mexico have challenged Team Canada for a spot at the World Men’s Championship and those games will be going down in Lacombe.

“The winner of the Brier traditionally goes to Worlds for Canada. If we were to not win a spot in this competition, then the Brier winner would not get to go to world this year. So, that would be a bad thing. There's a lot of high expectations on our team, which we're used to from playing at the highest level for the last four or five years,” said Moulding.

He said Team Bottcher will be practicing often. The team has a formula they use to get their head in the game and play well that they will be using over the next couple of weeks. Moulding has been playing on Team Bottcher since 2017 but the team has been in action for just about ten years.

“We've been a top ten team in the world and in the last three or four years, we've been the top five teams in the world. We finished the 2019 season ranked first in the world.  There's a lot of expectations on us like if we don't do well in an event, everybody asks what's wrong with us if we have a tough event. Everyone expects us to win all the time but to me, that's a privilege to have. Those expectations mean you've earned those expectations and it's a privilege,” said Moulding.

Last year, playing at this level came at a cost for Moulding who had to stick to his curling team’s bubble in order to compete and win the Brier trophy but thankfully, things are a little different this year.

“I'm really appreciative of being out of the bubble and being able to compete with my teammates outside of the bubble. The really fun part is playing in front of fans.  That's something that I enjoy and our team enjoys a lot. When we had the chance to host this event in Lacombe, we jumped on it. To be able to play in front of a local crowd here with the people that will support our team and that have been behind our team for years, it’s special,” said Moulding.

He and Team Botcher hope to see a considerable crowd for the International event which is being held at the Gary Moe Autogroup Sportsplex’s Curling Club. The Lacombe Curling Clubs is operating with the Restriction Exemption Program in place, and members of the public are welcome to watch the event take place from October 29 to October 31st. Event passes will cost $45 or you can purchase a draw pass for $10. For tickets you can call 403-782-6277 or email lacombecurling@gmail.com.