Joe Rea has never thought of himself as a rock star but it was hard not to get caught up in the hype as coach of the Paralympic-champion wheelchair curling team.
Not with 5,000 screaming fans expressing their patriotism after Canada beat Korea 8-7 in the gold-medal game in Vancouver.
"We had a great week and it was an experience you'll never be able to re-create -- it was awesome," said Rea, of Prince George. "The team played well and I don't think we could have written a better script.
"To have that many people in an arena all cheering for you, there's not much better than that."
Canada cruised to a 7-2 round-robin record, then beat Sweden 10-5 in a semifinal. In the gold-medal game, March 20, Canadian skip Jim Armstrong of Richmond built a big lead after four ends and hung on to defeat Korea 8-7 in what turned out a tense eight-end game.
Armstrong's team included third Darryl Neighbour of Richmond, second Ina Forrest of Vernon, lead Sonja Gaudet of Vernon and alternate Bruno Yizek of Calgary, Gaudet was the only part of the 2010 team that won the 2006 Paralympic title.
"I don't anybody really felt any pressure, other than the fact curling is a Canadian game so you feel somewhat pressured to do well," said Rea. "But I think it was a relief to have all our family and friends there watching. It's not very often our families get to watch because we play out of town and out of the country quite a bit."
Rea, 52, plans to stay on as head coach and is hoping to go to the next Paralympics in Sochi, Russia in 2014.
"I enjoy it," Rea said. "We're almost writing a book. In the able-bodied game there's been all kinds of books written on how the game should be played. But our game is actually changing as we go. It's changed in the last four years for sure -- just the level of play has gone up considerably.
"In (Turin) it would be pretty average to see one of the top teams playing about 50 or 55 per cent and we were around 70 or 75 per cent on a pretty regular basis in Vancouver. That's a pretty good percentage without sweeping, and we plan to get better still."
The team of five that played in the Paralympics was selected from a pool of 14 players which has been traveling to international tournaments the past four years, funded by Canada's Own the Podium program. Rea is confident there will be enough Canadian Sport Council and Canadian Curling Association funding to keep the wheelchair curling team intact. For potential new recruits, he'll be looking to some of the sledge hockey players who are considering a less physically-demanding sport.
Based on what he saw from Canada's opponents at the Vancouver Paralympic Centre he knows the other teams won't be sitting still.
"There were some surprises there," he said. "Italy played well and beat us in the round-robin. Sweden was in the thick of it again this year, Korea is really strong and Japan played well at the start of the round robin. It's really coming along. All the teams have gotten better in the last four years and we'll have to work really hard to stay ahead of everybody."
