The memory of Albert Bazinet, a dedictated Manitoba junior curling organizer and coach, was honoured at a Manitoba Junior Curling Tour event Friday evening at Heather Curling Club. Heather has renamed its MJCT Bonspiel the Albert Bazinet Open and CurlManitoba presented Albert’s wife Shirley, and the family with an Honourary membership for Albert. CurlManitoba was in the decision-making process to include Albert Bazinet as a recipient of a CurlManitoba Honorary Membership this season. Regretfully, the decision was too late to be able to make the presentation to Albert. While these awards are rarely made posthumously, it is appropriate in this case.

Albert Bazinet’s name first appears in the CurlManitoba historical records as coach of the Tyler Drews team which won a Junior Men’s bonspiel event in 2006. In the 20 year span since, his name is in the records a remarkable 30 more times.

He is in there twice as a competitor – as skip of a provincial berth winner in the Club Championship in 2012 AND as a Manitoba Open bonspiel event winner in 2018. That means his name is in the CurlManitoba records 29 times as a coach.

He enjoyed playing the game – but he truly loved coaching and he coached at all levels.  He coached four different times at the Viterra Men’s championship and once at a Senior Women’s. But his greatest involvement as a coach was with U-18 and Junior teams. At provincial championships, he coached three U-18 women’s teams, 2 U-18 men’s teams and two U-18 Mixed Doubles teams.

At the Junior level at provincials, he coached five Junior men’s teams and eleven junior women’s teams and he coached one Junior Women’s team at the Canada Games.

Two of those 29 teams reached provincial finals and took home silver medals. It is not reasonable to suggest Albert didn’t care that he never won a provincial title with one of his teams – of course, he cared – but he cared more because of disappointment for his curlers than for any personal disappointment.

He cared about his teams – perhaps more importantly he really cared that teams have an opportunity to play the game and to compete. He responded to direct requests from teams to be their coach …. but he also responded often to requests from CurlManitoba that he take on the task of accompanying a team and coaching them at provincials when they had qualified with a parent coach or some other coach who did not have complete credentials for provincials. Albert rarely said no to those requests because he wanted those teams to have that provincial experience.

The respect that his fellow coaches had for Albert was shown in their selection of him on three occasions as the recipient of the Coaching Award at provincials…at the Junior Men’s in 2011 AND twice in 2024 – at both the U18 Men’s and the Junior Men’s.

CurlManitoba has long admired Albert’s dedication to junior curling both as a coach and as the organizing energy behind the Manitoba Junior Curling Tour.