It was a warm summer day in early August of this year when I sat down for an hour with Glenn Howard to enjoy a burger and a sense of what was ahead of him in his curling life.

It was summertime, but Howard and his good friend Wayne Middaugh were already focused on the Olympic Curling Trials.

“I want to be a part of it (the Olympics),” said Howard, as he reached to steal one of my onion rings.

The swine.

“I want to taste it (the Olympics), feel it and be a part of it in every way possible. As a team I feel we are ready and we’re just that close to reaching our goal,” said the three-time world champion, holding two fingers only inches apart.

A three-year journey ended for Howard and Middaugh over the weekend in Edmonton, with neither veteran skip slipping on the coveted Team Canada jacket at Rexall Place.

That honour went to Edmonton native Kevin Martin and his rink, following a 7-3 win over Howard and his Coldwater and District Curling Club rink of Richard Hart, Brent Laing, Craig Savill, alternate Steve Bice and coach Scott Taylor.

In a post-game television interview Howard flashed that trademark ‘little kid’ smile and tried to make the best of a bad situation.

But you knew his intestines were twisting internally, knowing full well that the four key shots he missed last Sunday were the difference.

While he did curl well, Martin and his rink didn’t execute to the highest degree, something that will leave Howard wondering what might have been if he’d just booted up the team average a few points.

“If we curl average, we’re going to get killed,” said Howard candidly, when I spoke to him recently on the phone before heading to Alberta.

But to get a sense of how much this one hurts, you needed to be in the hamburger establishment with this scribe in August, when Howard talked about what the Olympic experience would be like.
His words were filled with positives, filled with phrases like “when we get to the Olympics” instead of “if”.

But mostly he talked about how great an experience it was to gaze at the gold medal his older brother Russ brought back from the 2006 Torino Winter Olympics, thinking about what that whole ‘gathering of the worlds’ athletes’ was all about.

“It was inspirational to see Russ win and to see that whole story unfold,” said Howard.
In 2005 Russ Howard was a late addition onto the Newfoundland/Labrador team skipped by Brad Gushue.

As he approached his 50th birthday at the time, Russ Howard, a Midland native, was carried away on the rollercoaster ride of a lifetime.

The ride concluded in spectacular fashion, with a gold medal win in Torino, Italy.

“To watch Russ guide that team to a gold medal win was so surreal. And you are right in that I have touched, fondled, held, and worn the gold medal since then and it is a fantastic feeling,” said Glenn.

Russ Howard will be on the ground in Vancouver, providing colour commentary during the Olympic curling television broadcasts on CTV and TSN.

To see Russ at 50 in 2006, playing at an elite level in the Olympics, outperforming curlers half his age, was an inspiration to Glenn.

No stone has been left unturned, as the younger Howard prepared himself mentally and physically for what was the most demanding curling year of his life.

Measures included hiring a personal trainer to make sure his body can withstand the rigors of a busy season on the ice.

Even though decades of play are now beginning to take its toll on his knees, at 47 he hasn’t ruled out one last run at an Olympic medal in 2014.

Surrounded by a younger team that has enjoyed tremendous success in the past five years, Howard has already indicated it will be a team decision as to whether they go down the Olympic road one more time.

But now is not the time to make snap decisions about a game that takes athletes on the road and away from family and employers for incredible amounts of time.

Only time will provide both men with the opportunity to reflect on what has just transpired in the often loud and slippery world of elite curling.

But time and space will also allow them to gauge how far they have come, reminding themselves of all the teams who didn’t even get a chance to join the final elite group of eight in Alberta.

Much like in 2006 when Howard suffered a crushing defeat in the Brier final in Regina, dealing with Sunday’s loss will take some time.

But Middaugh has a habit of rebounding well.

But less than one year after Regina, Howard and his Coldwater team were on top of the world as the men’s champions.

It was a five-year gap between world titles for Wayne Middaugh; making the second win in 1998 seem so special in his new role as skip.

Now in early 2010 comes a possible run at a potential fifth consecutive Ontario Tankard men’s curling title in Napanee for Team Howard.

Small potatoes when you consider the entire Olympic experience.

But in curling, as with many other sports, there is always the next competition to look forward to.

Yet there will still be immediate goal of putting a bitter defeat behind them.

But I have no doubt Glenn and Howard will find their winning edge again.

It’d be foolish to bet against them.