Former Golden Hawk flying to Italy, coach for men’s Olympic curling team
Posted Feb 3, 2026 10:32:32 AM.
Last Updated Feb 3, 2026 01:59:16 PM.
With the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympic Games just days away, Waterloo Region is beginning to turn its attention to Italy.
While Canadian pride will be growing over the coming weeks, there are some regional connections to root for across the competitions, particularly when it comes to former Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks.
One of those is Paul Webster, and while he won’t be taking to the slopes or hoping to find the back of the net, he’ll be working hard behind the scenes as the coach for Team Jacobs, representing Canada in men’s curling.
“The hotel looks amazing,” Webster said. “We’re right by a ski hill. None of the guys are allowed to ski, but yeah, it looks great.”
It’ll be Webster’s fifth time heading out to the Olympic Games, but he really began his more competitive stages of curling in Waterloo Region during his time as a Golden Hawk.
“We won a couple of provincial championships while I was there with the Golden Hawks, but I knew teaching was definitely where I could shine,” said Webster. “With teaching, you just can’t get off Thursday, Friday, possibly Monday for some of these events with travel and schedule and so on, I started coaching more because of that. I actually ended up coaching the Golden Hawks my first year out.”
He helped bring the local institution those two provincial championships in 1994 and 1996, also competing with the men’s rugby team during his time.
Since then, he turned his attention to coaching, where he was able to capture a Brier title in 2025, receive a Petro-Canada Coaching Excellence Award this past November, and become a consultant with Curling Canada at its national training centre in Calgary. He’s also served as the Curling Director at The Glencoe Club in Calgary for the last 14 years.
He said that looking at his time as a Laurier Golden Hawk and the impact it’s had on his career, it’s easy to see the importance of institutions such as Laurier when it comes to building the future of Canadian curling.
“That ability to have a student athlete be both a student and an athlete at the same time is inherently important to not only curling, but a ton of sports across Canada,” Webster said. “You can finish the class at 1:00 p.m. and be on the ice at 1:15 p.m. University sport is extremely important.”
He said that Laurier’s growth in recent years in its curling program has helped it to stand out from the rest.
“People want to go where banners have been hung, and coaching has been great. We’ve been lucky there with both facilities, coaching, and athletes. You just get the right athletes coming, and they talk to the other good athletes and say, ‘Yeah, this is unbelievable,'” Webster mentioned. “Knowing that you can get your university degree while simultaneously training for the sport that you not only love, but are extremely good at, it’s not surprising that Laurier has been so successful in curling.”
Pressure building towards the upcoming 2026 Olympic Games
Turning ahead to the upcoming 2026 Milano Cortina Olympic Games, Webster said he and the team have been actively preparing.
While much of the physical and strategic side won’t change, it can often be the mental portion of preparing that can really take some work leading up to the games, he explained.
“The pressure, the mental side, is probably the trickiest,” Webster stated. “I’m really lucky on this team that everyone’s been to an Olympics. Ben’s going to his third, Brett’s going to his second, Marc’s going to his fourth, and Brad’s going to his second. They’ve all been there, done that. They’ve all won medals before.”
The full squad for Team Jacobs consists of Brad Jacobs, Marc Kennedy, Ben Hebert, Brett Gallant, and alternate Tyler Tardi. The team qualified for the 2026 Olympic Games after coming away with the victory during the Canadian Curling Trials in Halifax.
Team Homan, the women’s team representing Canada at the games, also qualified during those trials. Sarah Wilkes, the Lead for Team Homan, is also a former Laurier Goldenhawk.
For Webster, he’s excited for the games themselves, but also for the pride and inspiration that will mount in the coming weeks.
He said that, while it’ll be one of the more impactful times for pushing forward the next generation of Canadian curlers, it won’t start until they pick up a stone themselves.
“Dreams are going to start on the practice ice. I think we all believe that these guys have got to the Olympics because they’ve won a whole bunch of stuff, but you know, the winning is what we see on TV,” Webster mentioned. “What we don’t see is the work that they do behind the scenes. These types of athletes and those young athletes who are wondering if they can, need to get on the ice.”
Webster and the rest of Team Jacobs will prepare to throw their first stone on Wednesday, Feb. 11, as they get set to face Team Germany in the first matchup of the men’s curling round robin.
