The Tim Hortons Brier is underway in Calgary, AB. and despite the COVID-19 pandemic, Toronto-based sports journalist Devin Heroux is still finding ways to keep up with the action outside of the bubble. He will be reporting on the Brier with his new show, That Curling Show, alongside six-time Scotties champion Colleen Jones.
As a die-hard fan of the Roughriders, 16-year-old Heroux was asked to be interviewed by CBC Radio in 2003.
“I guess they thought that I made some sense and sounded articulate and they kept bringing me on to do these Rider columns on CBC Radio,” said Heroux. “This is something that sort of evolved over quite a bit of time and one thing sort of led to another.”
In 2007, CBC started a blog covering sports and made Heroux a frequent contributor.
At 19 years old, Heroux had a weekly column in the Sheaf called Let’s Be Honest.
“Let’s be honest, I’m gay and I’m your sports editor,” Heroux recalled writing.
“I didn’t realize fully the weight of my words and what that was going to mean for people,” said Heroux. “When I shared my truth as a young gay guy growing up in Saskatchewan, who really didn’t have any sort of images or representation of what it meant to be gay and being sports, that was hard for me in a lot of ways. I had to pave my own path.”
After graduating from the School of Journalism at the University of Regina in 2012, Heroux knew he wanted to be in sports. More specifically, curling.
“What I like to boast about in my curling world is that I won two city high school curling championships,” said Heroux.
“I always loved curling. It was Sandra Schmirler winning Olympic gold in 1998 that really sort of caught my attention,” said Heroux. “I went ‘wow, what a sport’ but more than anything, it was four strong women at the Olympics from Saskatchewan taking on the world. I just thought it was the most magical thing that somebody from our province could take on the world and kick butt.”
In 2017 Heroux pitched to the CBC Sports Department to let him cover a couple of curling events.
“I said just send me to a couple of curling events and watch what happens,” said Heroux.
They agreed, so Heroux was able to cover the Scotties and the Brier for CBC.
“It was lightning in a bottle. I cannot begin to tell you what that experience was like,” said Heroux. “I was live tweeting it, I was doing radio, I was just covering it in a way that people had never seen with a dramatic flair.”
Since then, he has covered many other curling events. This year, it’s different.
“I would’ve been at the event, but I’m covering it from my place in downtown Toronto which is a very different thing,” said Heroux.
“I’ve had a really hard time throughout all of this, being as inspired and motivated as I normally am,” said Heroux. “I don’t have those compelling collective fans screaming, edge of your seat, thrilling moments to draw inspiration, so that’s been hard for me. I’ve been missing that rush of adrenaline big time.”
Recently, Heroux launched a new way to connect with curling fans.
It’s called That Curling Show. He will be live commentating on the Brier with Colleen Jones.
CURLING ???? PARTY STARTS NOW
Good evening curling fans across Canada and around the world. The waiting is over. Again. We’re baaaaaaaaack. Brier begins.
ROLLLLL CALLL — where are you watching?
Watch That Curling Show: https://t.co/VjiTGLPkrd #cbccurl @CBCOlympics
— Devin Heroux (@Devin_Heroux) March 6, 2021
“People flocked to it like crazy,” said Heroux. “The curling community the fans are unlike any other.”
WATCH | That Curling Show: 3-time Brier champ @waynemiddaugh hasn't missed a beat since coming out of retirement to help skip for the sidelined @TeamGlennHoward ???? #cbccurl https://t.co/QwYf1cyRx5
— CBC Olympics (@CBCOlympics) March 8, 2021
