After an illustrious career at the helm of the Brock Badgers curling program, Murray Etherington has announced his retirement.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy time at Brock has been the greatest. I have been so fortunate to have met so many terrific people,\u201d said Etherington, who guided the Badgers to numerous national and provincial medals during his 10 years at the University.<\/p>\n
\u201cI always encourage our curlers to take advantage of opportunities that sport and life presents them. I am so glad that I took advantage of the opportunity to become a Brock Badger. These 10 seasons have given me a lifetime of memories,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Etherington put Brock curling on the map and elevated it to one of the top programs in the country.<\/p>\n
The Brock women\u2019s curling team qualified for seven trips to the U SPORTS national championships, winning three national silver medals (2011, 2012, 2019) and a bronze (2018). The men\u2019s team qualified for six national championships and won a bronze (2012).<\/p>\n
On the provincial stage, Etherington coached the women\u2019s team to a pair of OUA silver medals (2015, 2016) and three OUA bronze (2011, 2018, 2019). The men\u2019s squad has an OUA gold (2018), silver (2019) and two bronze (2014, 2017).<\/p>\n
Etherington got his start at Brock after receiving an email from a group of Brock curlers in 2009 informing him that their coach was not returning and asking if he would consider applying for the head coach position.<\/p>\n
Etherington reached out to then Assistant Athletic Director Chris Critelli.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was a bit nervous on my way to the Walker Complex to meet with hers,\u201d he said. \u201cI was impressed as I drove through the campus and saw the size of Brock in general.\u201d<\/p>\n
The two hit it off and Etherington got the job.<\/p>\n
\u201cMurray\u2019s a gentle soul and his calmness projects onto his teams,\u201d said Critelli, who is also an avid curler. \u201cHe was always pushing for the men\u2019s and women\u2019s team to get better and if he didn\u2019t know something, he went out of his way to learn. He is cutting edge.\u201d<\/p>\n
Etherington grew the program from two teams to four and added a total of six coaches. He drew up a five-year plan and sought advice from other Brock coaches on how to build a successful program.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe program collected a few banners in the 70s, but it really didn\u2019t take off until Murray stepped into the role,\u201d Critelli said. \u201cThe sport also became popular at the same time he took over, so it was a competitive landscape and he navigated it perfectly in order for his team to succeed.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 2011, he was inducted into the Niagara Falls Sports Wall of Fame as a builder. The following season, an influx of curlers showed up to try out for the team.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had so many that we had to create a women\u2019s junior varsity and development team,\u201d he said. \u201cThe next year we had enough men to start a men\u2019s junior varsity. For a couple of years, we even had a third women\u2019s team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Etherington was named the OUA Women\u2019s Coach of the Year in 2011-12 and 2014-15.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know it\u2019s clich\u00e9, but I truly enjoy helping people become better,\u201d said Etherington. \u201cTo see someone improve over a season, accomplish something new in a practice and see the smile on their face is so great. My philosophy has always been to help my athletes set their goals, draw up a plan to achieve their goals and help them acquire the knowledge and skills to carry out their plan.\u201d<\/p>\n
In retirement, Etherington still plans to curl, but will travel during the winter months. He won\u2019t stray far from coaching. He\u2019s committed to mentoring U18 teams and coaches through Ontario Curling\u2019s Next Gen Project and facilitating coaching workshops.<\/p>\n
As the Badgers seek out a new head coach, Etherington is confident the program will maintain its high-level of success.<\/p>\n
\u201cBrock has a strong family-first culture,\u201d he said. \u201cWith the current curlers that we have and the recruits coming this September and in the future, I can see the curling program winning more OUA and eventually some U SPORTS banners. The sky really is the limit for Brock curling.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
After an illustrious career at the helm of the Brock Badgers curling program, Murray Etherington has announced his retirement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":57834,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7484,3319,1,4,58],"tags":[112,256,4437,766,4632],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57836"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57836"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57836\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57837,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57836\/revisions\/57837"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}