Jeffrey R. "Jeff" Stoughton (born July 26, 1963) is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

retired curler. He is a three-time

Brier Briar, Briars, Brier, or Briers may refer to: * Briar, or brier, common name for a number of unrelated thorny plants that form thicket People * Brier (surname) * Briers, a surname * Briars (surname) Places * Briar, Missouri, U.S. * Bri ...

champion and two-time

World In its most general sense, the term "world" refers to the totality of entities, to the whole of reality or to everything that is. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the worl ...

champion as skip. Stoughton retired from competitive curling in 2015. He is one of the most successful Manitoba skips in curling history, and one of the most successful players in Canadian curling history. He is currently the National Men's Coach and Program Manager for

Curling Canada Curling Canada (formerly the Canadian Curling Association (CCA)) is a sanctioning body for the sport of Curling in Canada. It is associated with more than a dozen provincial and territorial curling associations across the country, and organizes ...

, as well as being the head coach of the Canadian Mixed Doubles National Team.

Career

Stoughton's first national championship came in 1988 when he won the Canadian Mixed Curling Championship. He won the mixed once again in 1991. 1991 was the same year Stoughton attended his first Brier. His team of Dave Iverson,

Ken Tresoor Kenneth Tresoor (born November 27, 1966) is a Canadian curler. He is a and a 1996 Labatt Brier champion. Teams References External links * Ken Tresoor – Curling Canada Stats Archive Living people Canadian male curlers Curlers from ...

and

Garry VanDenBerghe Garry Van Den Berghe (born November 13, 1960 in La Rivière, Manitoba) is a Canadian curler from Winnipeg, Manitoba and now living in Vernon, British Columbia. He coached the Jason Gunnlaugson rink in 2020 and in 2020 he began coaching a Japanes ...

finished 6-5. Five years later, at the 1996 Labatt Brier, Stoughton and his team of Tresoor, VanDenBerghe, and Steve Gould went all the way, losing only two games en route to the championship, defeating Kevin Martin of

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

in the final. At the subsequent World Championship, Stoughton went on to lose just one game, winning the Championship against Warwick Smith of

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

. At the 1997 Olympic Curling Trials, Jeff and his play played well, but narrowly missed the playoffs at 5-4. Stoughton would return to the 1999 Labatt Brier with 2 new players,

Jon Mead Jonathan Mead (born April 10, 1967 in Regina, Saskatchewan) is a Canadian curler from Winnipeg, Manitoba. Mead played third for Wayne Middaugh's rink (except for provincial playdowns) until the end of the 2009–10 curling season. Beginning in t ...

and Doug Armstrong replacing Tresoor and Gould. The team went 10-3 winning in the final against

Guy Hemmings Guy Hemmings (born May 10, 1962) is a Canadian curler from Sorel. Hemmings gained prominence after reaching the final of the Brier in 1998 and 1999. He is considered an ambassador for the game, not only in his home province of Quebec but across ...

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

. However, at the 1999 Worlds, Stoughton's team would not be as successful as they were in 1996. The team went 9-2, but one of their losses was in the final against

Hammy McMillan Hamilton "Hammy" McMillan (born 13 July 1963) is a Scottish curler and world champion. He won a gold medal as skip for the Scottish team at the 1999 Ford World Curling Championships in Saint John, New Brunswick.2000 Labatt Brier. The team, who had an excellent round robin, would bow out in the first game of the playoffs, and finish with a 9-4 record. At the 2001 Olympic Curling Trials, the team would for the second straight time miss the playoffs by just 1 game, going 5-4. At the 2005 Olympic Curling Trials, Stoughton would come the closest he ever would to reaching the Olympics. He finished the round robin in 2nd place behind the

Brad Gushue Bradley Raymond Gushue, ONL ( ; born June 16, 1980) is a Canadian curler from St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador. Gushue, along with teammates Russ Howard, Mark Nichols, Jamie Korab and Mike Adam, represented Canada in curling at the 2006 W ...

rink (skipped for this event by

Russ Howard Russell W. "Russ" Howard, CM, ONL (born February 19, 1956 in Midland, Ontario) is a Canadian curler and Olympic champion, based in Regina, Saskatchewan, but originally from Midland, Ontario. He lived in Moncton, New Brunswick from 2000 to 2 ...

throwing second stones), and defeated then John Morris in the semifinal. In the final, Gushue made a steal of two in the 4th end which put Stoughton in a 6-2 hole, which proved to be costly. Stoughton was unable to score the needed second point in the 10th end to tie the match, leading him to lose by a final score of 8-7. Following this loss, Stoughton's third, Jon Mead took a four year break from curling (after the upcoming 2006 Brier). After a long break between Briers, in large part due to the conflict between the new Grand Slam of Curling and the Canadian Curling Association, which made Grand Slam participants ineligible for the Brier playdowns for several years, Stoughton reached the 2006 Tim Hortons Brier with Mead, Van Den Berghe, and Gould by winning the 2006 Manitoba championship, beating

Reid Carruthers Reid Carruthers (born December 30, 1984) is a Canadian curler from Winnipeg, Manitoba. Carruthers was the 2011 world champion—winning gold as a second on Jeff Stoughton's team—as well as a six-time provincial champion, the 2003 junior prov ...

in the final. At the Brier however, the team finished in sixth place with a record of 6-5, missing the playoffs. This would be the final competitive event for longtime Stoughton second Van Den Berghe who retired. Stoughton would win the 2007 Manitoba Championship with a new lineup of

Ryan Fry Ryan Bennett Fry (born July 25, 1978) is a Canadian curler currently living in Toronto and playing third on the Mike McEwen team. He previously played third for Team Brad Jacobs, and the team represented Canada and won the gold medal at the ...

, Rob Fowler, and Gould, defeating Peter Nicholls in the final. The team would go on to win a bronze medal at the 2007 Brier. He fared better than the previous year, but fell in the semifinal to eventual world champion

Glenn Howard Glenn William Howard (born July 17, 1962) is a Canadian curler who is one of the most decorated curlers of all time. He has won four world championships, four Briers and 17 Ontario provincial championships, including a record eight straigh ...

of Ontario, eliminating Kevin Martin in the 3-4 game; Howard held a four-point lead after nine ends, and Stoughton was ready to concede the game; however, CBC, who was broadcasting the game, requested that the tenth end be played for airtime reasons; the two teams ended up throwing all the stones through the house in the tenth end. Following the 2007-08 season, Ryan Fry left Team Stoughton to join

's rink. Fry was replaced with

Kevin Park Kevin Park (born September 2, 1964 in Hythe, Alberta) is a Canadian curler from Edmonton, Alberta. Career Early career Park was a two time provincial junior champion in his native Alberta, winning in 1983 and 1984. Park played third for Kev ...

for the 2008-09 season. The move proved to be fairly successful, as Stoughton led his new team to the final of the 2009 Tim Hortons Brier in which they lost to Kevin Martin. Stoughton's rink qualified for the 2009 Canadian Olympic Curling Trials. The team finished third, after losing to

's rink in the semi-final. In February 2010 Jeff Stoughton won his 8th Manitoba provincial championship, a record for that province. At the 2010 Tim Hortons Brier, Stoughton finished out of the playoffs despite a 7-4 record. In April 2010 Rob Fowler and

quit the team and both decided to skip their own teams for 2010-2011. Jeff brought back his past longtime third

, while also acquiring

to play at second. With a new team of Jon Mead and Reid Carruthers, Stoughton won the 2011 Safeway Championship in Manitoba to qualify for the 2011 Tim Hortons Brier. There in

London, Ontario London (pronounced ) is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada, along the Quebec City–Windsor Corridor. The city had a population of 422,324 according to the 2021 Canadian census. London is at the confluence of the Thames River, approximate ...

, the team finished second in the round robin and went on to defeat

in the final 8-6, capturing Stoughton's third Brier championship. Stoughton and his team also did well at the

world championships A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

, finishing first in the round robin and defeating

Tom Brewster Thomas Brewster Jr. (born 10 April 1974) is a Scottish curler from Aberdeen, Scotland. He is currently the coach of the Ross Paterson men's team. Career Brewster is a former World Junior champion, having won the title in 1995. The Scottish ...

a total of three times to win his second world title. After was the second World title for both Stoughton and Gould, but after many years the first World title for Jon Mead. Stoughton throwing, Elite 10

Stoughton failed to reach the 2012 Tim Hortons Brier after losing to eventual provincial champion Rob Fowler in the quarterfinals of the 2012 Safeway Championship. A few weeks later, Stoughton dropped lead Steve Gould from his team. It was then announced in May 2012 that Mark Nichols would join the team for the next season as lead. Stoughton won his first Canada Cup in 2012, defeating

's rink in the final. This gave his team a berth in the 2013 Canadian Olympic Curling Trials in his hometown of Winnipeg. Later in the season, Stoughton won the 2013 The National, completing a career Grand Slam. He qualified for his 10th Brier of his career by winning the 2013 Safeway Championship. At the 2013 Tim Hortons Brier, Stoughton led his Manitoba rink to an 8-3 round robin record. The team managed to make it to the final against Northern Ontario's

Brad Jacobs Bradley Robert Jacobs (born June 11, 1985) is a Canadian curler from Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. He is an Olympic champion skip, having led Canada to a gold medal at the 2014 Winter Olympics. Jacobs is also the 2013 Tim Hortons Brier champions ...

whom they lost to. At the 2013 Olympic Trials, Stoughton's team finished the round robin with a 3-4 record, missing the playoffs. The team would win another Manitoba championship in 2014, earning the rink a trip to the 2014 Tim Hortons Brier. At the Brier, the team finished the round robin in a three-way time for first place with a 9-2 record. After losing to Quebec in the 3 vs. 4 match, they beat them in a re-match to claim the bronze medal. Despite retiring in 2015, Stoughton has made occasional returns to professional events in cameo roles. He participated in the 2017 Elite 10 Grand Slam event and returned to play the March 2018 Elite 10 curling event with Carruthers. There he skipped the team while throwing third stones, though the team failed to qualify for the playoffs.

Coaching

Following his retirement in 2015 as a professional curler, Stoughton served as a coach for Team Canada's mixed doubles at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang,

Korea Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...

. He would serve as coach for

Kaitlyn Lawes Lesley Kaitlyn Lawes (born December 16, 1988) is a Canadian curler. Lawes was the long time third for the Jennifer Jones team that represented Canada at the 2014 Winter Olympics where they won the gold medal. They were the first women's team to ...

and John Morris as they won the Olympic gold medal. He currently serves as

's men's and mixed doubles national coach and program manager.

Career statistics

Grand Slam record

Teams

Personal life

Stoughton is a financial systems manager for

Air Canada Air Canada is the flag carrier and the largest airline of Canada by the size and passengers carried. Air Canada maintains its headquarters in the borough of Saint-Laurent, Montreal, Quebec. The airline, founded in 1937, provides scheduled an ...

. He is married to Hali Weiss, and they have a daughter, Elizabeth and two sons, Riley and Cole. Stoughton was known for his 360° "spin-o-rama" delivery, where he comes out of the hack, spins around and then throws the rock. Stoughton does this to entertain fans, but does not usually do it during games, except for meaningless shots. He also performed the move in a cameo appearance in the 2002 film

Men With Brooms ''Men with Brooms'' is a 2002 Canadian romantic comedy film, starring and directed by Paul Gross. Centred on the sport of curling, the offbeat comedy tells the story of a reunited curling team from a small Canadian town as they work through their ...

Honours

Stoughton was inducted into the

Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame The Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame and Museum is a Canadian museum in Winnipeg, Manitoba, dedicated to honoring the history and achievements of sports in Manitoba. The organization began in 1980, and then opened a museum in The Forks in 1993. Afte ...

in June 2018.

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Stoughton, Jeff 1963 births Living people Curlers from Winnipeg World curling champions Brier champions Canadian mixed curling champions Canadian male curlers Canadian curling coaches Canada Cup (curling) participants