Colton Flasch

Colton Flasch (born February 27, 1991[2]) is a Canadian curler from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

Colton Flasch
Curler
Born (1991-02-27) February 27, 1991
Biggar, Saskatchewan
Team
Curling clubNutana CC,[1]
Saskatoon, SK
SkipColton Flasch
ThirdCatlin Schneider
SecondKevin Marsh
LeadDan Marsh
Career
Member Association Saskatchewan (2009–2018; 2020–present)
 Alberta (2018–2020)
Brier appearances5 (2014, 2015, 2016, 2019, 2020)
World Championship
appearances		1 (2019)
Top CTRS ranking1st (2018–19)
Medal record
Representing  Canada
World Men's Curling Championship
2019 Lethbridge
Representing  Alberta
Tim Hortons Brier
2019 Brandon
Representing  Saskatchewan
Tim Hortons Brier
2015 Calgary

Career

Juniors

After having curled with the Mike Armstrong junior rink, Flasch joined the Braeden Moskowy rink at second position in 2010. The team won the Saskatchewan Junior championships that year, earning the rink the right to represent Saskatchewan at the 2011 Canadian Junior Curling Championships. At the Canadian Juniors, the team- which also included Kirk Muyres and Matt Lang- went undefeated (12-0) through the round robin, and proceeded to win the event by defeating Ontario's Mathew Camm in the final. The team would go on to represent Canada at the 2011 World Junior Curling Championships where they would find less success. The team found themselves in 4th place after the round robin with a 6–3 record. The team beat Norway (Steffen Mellemseter) in their first playoff match, but in the semi-final they lost to Switzerland (Peter de Cruz), and then lost to Norway again in the bronze medal game. After the World Juniors, the team played in their first Grand Slam event, the 2011 Players' Championship where they surprised many by making into the quarterfinals. After the season, Moskowy and Muyres graduated from the junior level. Lang and Flasch remained together, with Lang at skip and Flasch at second. They added Tyler Hartung and Jayden Shwaga.

Men's

Following juniors, Flasch joined the Steve Laycock rink at second, rejoining his former junior teammate, Kirk Muyres who is third on the team. Kirk's brother Dallan would play lead. In Flasch's first season with the Laycock rink, the team would play in all four Grand Slam events, making it to the semi-finals of the 2012 Masters of Curling. At the 2013 provincial men's championship, the team finished 4th. Following the season, the team had accumulated enough CTRS points to qualify for the "Road to the Roar" 2013 Canadian Olympic pre-qualifying event. At the "Road to the Roar" the following season, the team placed fourth, which was not good enough to qualify for the 2013 Canadian Olympic Curling Trials.

The Laycock rink would win the 2014 SaskTel Tankard men's provincial championship, sending the team to the 2014 Tim Hortons Brier, Flasch's first. At the Brier, the team narrowly missed the playoffs, after finishing the round robin with a 6–5 record.

In the 2014-15 curling season, the team had their best year yet finishing the season 4th on the World Curling Tour's money list. The team qualified in the first three Grand Slams with a runner up finish to Team Gushue at the 2014 Canadian Open of Curling. The Laycock team repeated as Saskatchewan champions, and would represent Saskatchewan at the 2015 Tim Hortons Brier. There, they finished the round robin with an 8–4 record finishing 3rd in the round robin. They would lose the 3 vs. 4 game to Team Canada, but would go on to win the bronze medal.

They Laycock rink won the 2016 SaskTel Tankard and represented Saskatchewan at the 2016 Tim Hortons Brier. There, they finished out of the playoffs with a 5–6 record.

After the team lost in the final of the 2017 SaskTel Tankard, Flasch announced he was leaving the Laycock rink.[3] For the 2017-18 curling season, Flasch formed a new team of Kevin Marsh, Daniel Marsh and Trent Knapp, with Flasch skipping the team. His new team would win one tour event, the 2017 College Clean Restoration Curling Classic. This qualified them for the season-ending 2018 Humpty's Champions Cup, their lone slam of the season, where they would lose in a tiebreaker. The team played in the 2017 Canadian Olympic Curling Pre-Trials, where they finished with a 2–4 record, missing the playoffs. At the 2018 SaskTel Tankard, Flacsh led his team all the way to the finals, where he lost to his former skip, Steve Laycock. In March 2018, it was announced that Flasch would be joining the Koe rink for the 2018-19 curling season, and would play second on the team.[4]

After joining the Edmonton-based team of Kevin Koe, B. J. Neufeld and Ben Hebert, his new team began the 2018-19 curling season by winning the first leg of the Curling World Cup, defeating Norway's Steffen Walstad in the final. In provincial playdowns, the Koe rink lost two of their first three games at the 2019 Boston Pizza Cup, before winning five straight games to claim the Alberta championship. The team represented Alberta at the 2019 Tim Hortons Brier, and went undefeated in the entire tournament en route to winning his first Brier title. They went on to represent Canada at the 2019 World Men's Curling Championship, finishing the round robin with a 9–3 record. They battled through the playoffs to play Team Sweden's Niklas Edin rink in the final, losing 7–2. In Grand Slam play, the team failed to win any slams, but did make it to three finals. Despite the lack of any event wins, their strong play was good enough to award them with the Pinty's Cup for the season's best Slam team.[5] The team ended the season in the Grand Final of the Curling World Cup, where they beat the host Chinese team (Zou Qiang). At the end of the season, Team Koe ranked first on the World Curling Tour Order of Merit and Money List. This also meant they led the CTRS standings, finishing the season with 512.335 points.

Team Koe started their 2019–20 season at the 2019 AMJ Campbell Shorty Jenkins Classic and lost in the quarterfinal to Brad Jacobs. They lost the final of the Stu Sells Toronto Tankard to the Jacobs rink as well. In Grand Slam play, they made the semifinal of the Tour Challenge and the quarterfinals of the National. They missed the playoffs at both the Masters and the Canadian Open. At the Canada Cup, they finished the round robin with a 5–1, which qualified them for the final which they lost to John Epping. At the 2020 Tim Hortons Brier they finished the championship pool with a 7–4 record, which was a four-way tie for fourth. They faced Jacobs in the first round of tiebreakers where they lost 8–3 and were eliminated. It would be the team's last event of the season as both the Players' Championship and the Champions Cup Grand Slam events were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[6] On March 16, 2020, Team Koe announced they would be parting ways with Flasch.[7]

Personal life

Flasch is employed as a construction worker for K&S Construction and currently lives in Calgary, Alberta[8] He attended the University of Saskatchewan and Biggar Central School.

References
  1. "Colton Flasch Profile". Curling Canada. Retrieved March 15, 2019.
  2. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on March 10, 2014. Retrieved March 9, 2014.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  3. "Colton Flasch stepping away from Team Laycock". Grand Slam of Curling. Retrieved April 28, 2018.
  4. "Kevin Koe recruits Neufeld and Flasch to curling team". North Shore News. Archived from the original on April 29, 2018. Retrieved April 28, 2018.
  5. "Koe reaches Players' Championship Final Clinch Pinty's Cup". Sportsnet. Retrieved August 27, 2019.
  6. "GSOC cancels remaining events of 2019–20 season". Grand Slam of Curling. Grand Slam of Curling. March 13, 2020. Retrieved March 17, 2020.
  7. Ryan Horne (March 16, 2020). "Team Koe part ways with second Flasch". The Sports Network. Retrieved March 17, 2020.
  8. "2020 Tim Hortons Brier Media Guide" (PDF). Curling Canada. Retrieved 2020-02-24.
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