For the 12th time in his career, Frank LaBounty is competing on a national sheet of ice.
Next week, the 48-year-old from Prince George will roll into the 2015 Canadian Wheelchair Curling championship set to begin April 27 in Boucherville, Que.
LaBounty, a longtime curler out of the Prince George Golf and Curling Club, will play second for Team B.C. that's skipped by Gerry Austgarden from Kelowna. The rink is also comprised of third Darryl Neighbour from Richmond, the 2010 Paralympic champion, and lead Allison Duddy of Quesnel.
Back in January in Richmond, LaBounty and his team (including Duddy at third) lost the B.C. championship final in an extra end to a rink that was skipped by Gary Cormack, and included Austgarden, Neighbour and Samantha Siu.
The victory meant they advanced to the national championship.
But Cormack and Siu declined their spots on Team B.C. because of a conflict in their schedules.
That meant Austgarden moved up to skip, Neighbour to third while LaBounty and Duddy slid into the second and lead positions respectively.
"I wasn't off the ice for five minutes and they asked me to (fill in)," said LaBounty. "I'm happy to be asked. I'm glad to go. I've only missed one (national championship) in 11 years and that was right at the beginning of my career."
In his competitive career, LaBounty has won the national crown three times between 2007 to 2009 as part of rinks skipped by Jim Armstrong and Neighbour.
At the 2014 Canadian championship, LaBounty was part of Neighbour's B.C. team that won the silver medal after a final loss to Manitoba. LaBounty has finished second four times at the national championship.
The 2015 version of Team B.C. got together on the ice April 11-12 in Vancouver for their last practice prior to their departure for Quebec on April 25.
LaBounty is not worried about chemistry on the team.
"Our last practice went really good and everybody nailed it," he said. "We've all been doing this long enough and played together before."
B.C. begins play on April 27 against Saskatchewan in the 10-team round-robin.
Page playoffs begin May 2, while the championship final is set on May 3.
A complete schedule can be found at http://www.curling.ca/2015wheelchair/
