Joshua Miki is a chip off the curling rock, who himself is a chip off the curling rock.
A third generation of the Miki family is starting to make shavings on the curling sheet.
Joshua, 16, is following his dad, former world champion and Burnaby native Bryan Miki, to the hog line. Bryan learned the game from his dad, Fuji, a one-time national mixed champ.
All three curl out of New West’s Royal City Curling Club. It’s no surprise the sport is pretty much all the talk around the family dinner table.
Two weeks ago, Joshua was the second on Dawson Ballard’s Royal City/Coquitlam Curling Club team that won their under-18 provincial qualifier in Mill Bay.
They lost a 3-1 thriller to Tyler Tardi’s team from Langley/Royal City last month in the Boston Pizza B.C. Jr. Men’s Under-21 Curling championships.
Coached by Joshua’s dad, the player gets the benefits and stress of the family ties.
“You hear different perspectives and tactics,” Joshua said of his dad’s coaching. “But sometimes if you have a rough game, you don’t want to hear it.”
“Once a parent, always a parent,” said Bryan, whose accomplishments recently led to his being named to the Burnaby Sports Hall of Fame for induction on Feb. 22. “There are times I have to bite my tongue.”
With all the time the family spent at curling rinks, it was perhaps inevitable Joshua picked up the broom as a 10-year-old.
Bryan said his ascent to competitive curling took longer as there was more competition in his day. Joshua said it’s a challenge now to muster interest to form a team at school.
But the more he curls, the more he loves it.
“It doesn’t feel like work,” Joshua said.
He credits his father for sharing the lessons he learned at the national and international levels on things like game preparation, sleeping, managing travel and practice time.
“I’ve made so many mistakes,” Bryan said. “I compress 30 years of experience into a short period of time.”
As Joshua’s confidence grows, Bryan knows his voice as his coach will diminish and he can put his dad hat back on.
“You coach them, you teach them and hopefully they’ll be good kids,” he said. “It’s like life.”
