I can’t say that I tend to pay a lot of attention to curling, let alone Under-18 curling, but when Liam Rowe is involved, you pay attention.
I knew what I was looking for when I went on the Curling Canada website. Team MacTavish. They had won their third Ontario Under-18 championship, giving them the right to compete at the national championships against teams across the country. The team fought hard to get back to this event after taking silver last year.
As I clicked on the website, I beamed with pride. Team MacTavish blew through the round robin with six wins and no losses. As a result, they received a bye from the round of 16 and advanced directly to the quarterfinals, where they defeated the Northern Ontario Team. For the second year in a row, they were in the semi-finals. I was excited for Liam and the team.
Unfortunately, they lost their semi-final game to a team from Quebec. I was sad for Liam and the other members of Team MacTavish. They had earned the right to compete at the national championships in Timmins, Ontario, and I, like a lot of their supporters, wanted them to win gold.
I texted Liam to express my sorrow for his loss, to which he replied ‘Oh, Keith, I’m doing just fine. Gonna go get that bronze and walk away still a happy guy’. And that’s exactly what Team MacTavish did.
Liam Rowe is a special type of person.
In a world full of people going on about how ‘busy’ they are, he has seemed to have figured it out—at the tender age of 18. (Though for single women, he does identify as 23). In addition to being an award-winning curler, Liam is also a full-time university student and has a part-time job at a local grocery store.
Rowe and his curling team did win a Bronze at the Under-18 Canadian Curling Championships. That’s one year removed from his team’s Silver win. In fact, he has won the Under-18 Curling Championship in Ontario in 2023, 2025, and 2026.
He has rubbed shoulders with Canadian Olympic athletes, and people within the curling community in Ottawa are familiar with him and his teammates, which also include Owen MacTavish, Alec Symeonides, Aaron Benning and Tyler MacTavish. Their coach is Sam Mooibroek.
This collection of gentlemen has been national curling royalty for years, and they recently decided to disband the team as they pursue different paths in their lives. Whatever the future holds for these young men, I have no doubt it is bright for all of them.
I have known Liam for several years and, always wanting to spotlight the outstanding people in the nation’s capital, I asked him for an interview as it’s not every day I get to speak with a curling phenom.
Team MacTavish: Coach Sam Modibroek, (Alternate) Owen MacTavish, (Lead) Liam Rowe, (Second) Alec Symeonides, (Vice) Aaron Benning, (Skip) Tyler MacTavish.
OLM: What got you into curling, and how long have you been curling?
Liam Rowe: My Dad put me into curling Little Rocks at the Manotick Curling Club when I was just 7 years old. My brother did it a year before, and seeing how much fun he was having, I knew that I wanted to try it out as well. Because my Dad curled his whole, it was inevitable that at some point I would try it, but I never could have imagined that after 11 years, I would still be curling and loving it just as much.
OLM: At what point did you become competitive in your curling career?
Liam Rowe: After winning Little Rock Regionals with my brother and a set of twins and bringing a banner to my home club, I knew it was time to move on to something better. I joined the Ottawa Hunt Club and started curling with real curling rocks, and soon after joined my first Under 15 Competitive team. At the age of 12, I started to compete in a lot of tournaments around Ottawa with this team, and it gave me tons of experience competing at the highest level for my age.
OLM: How do you balance a job and also curling?
Liam Rowe: Balancing my job at the store and curling is not the easiest thing in the world, but I think it’s important to have a good balance between all your favourite things. I don’t curl every day, not because I don’t love or can’t; it’s because sometimes too much of something is not good. In terms of work, I only work when I can. For example, if I have a tournament coming up, I will let the store know and won’t work those days, which usually fall on weekends. I don’t work during the week because of school, so if I have a curling tournament that week, I am most likely not working.
OLM: Where do you want to take your curling career next?
Liam Rowe: Well, now that the season has concluded, it is time to start the preparation for the season ahead. That means staying in shape and keeping the mind in the game by watching tapes and strategy sessions. Where I want to take my curling career next is another successful season in 2027 with my team, which hopefully caps off with a provincial win and representing the great province of Ontario another time in the Under 20 Circuit.
OLM: Who are your influences?
Liam Rowe: First, I have to say my dad; he was the one who got me into this sport that I fell in love with. His representing Newfoundland at the Brier in Ottawa in 1993 is a massive inspiration for me and my goals. The most influential curler for me is the G.O.A.T., Brad Gushue. He is also from Newfoundland and was coached by my dad at the Canadian Junior Championships, where they got bronze in 1999 and silver in 2000. Brad is widely considered the greatest curler of all time. His dedication to the sport and his dominance over the last 10 years, winning a record six Brier Championships and being a two-time Olympic medalist, are inspirational. With this year being his last, it was bittersweet watching his final Brier this past week in his hometown of St. John’s.
OLM: What’s a misconception about the sport?
Liam Rowe: The biggest worldwide conception of curling is it looks very easy; all you are doing is sliding a stone at a target. In reality, it takes years to really grasp what curling actually is and to become good. It takes so much dedication and patience. In my non-biased opinion, it is one of the most technically difficult sports on our planet. It is seen as a niche sport that only gets turned on during the Olympics, but it is an increasingly competitive sport that has many intense competitions every season for fans like me to love.
OLM: Time for some Rapid Fire! What’s your favourite movie of all time, and if you can give me one, I’ll take a top three.
Liam Rowe: Though I am not a movie expert like you, I have watched my fair share of movies, and if I had to choose one, I would say Shawshank Redemption.
OLM: Because you’re such a good curler, does that automatically mean that your parents want you to do a lot of sweeping around the house?
Liam Rowe: Funny enough, I have swept more at the store than my house.
OLM: Curlers appear to be flexible… Do you do yoga, and if so, how often?
Liam Rowe: Never, but I’m stretching constantly during the season because it is common to pull a muscle if you aren’t stretching before and after games.
OLM: Outside of curling, where are some of your other interests?
Liam Rowe: Outside of curling, I like to watch pretty much every major sport you can think of except for the NFL. I’m studying Cyber Security/Computer Science at Carleton University. In the summer, I like to be outside as much as possible, whether that’s our trailer, swimming in the lake, or going on hikes. I’m outside as much as I can.
Liam and Team MacTavish have a Facebook page that can be found at https://www.facebook.com/TeamMacTavish
