Jamie Koe and the Northwest Territories ended the 2015 Brier with no wins and 11 defeats.
Skip Koe lost 8-4 to Ontario in Friday’s final round-robin match-up.
That painful record – “Hold me,” Koe had earlier tweeted – means the NWT will not receive automatic entry to next year’s men’s national curling championship.
The territory will instead have to come through a preliminary round to reach the main tournament. The same fate befell NWT women’s entrant Kerry Galusha, Koe’s sister, ahead of Scotties this year.
Galusha cried on TSN last month as her NWT rink was defeated by Northern Ontario for the right to take part in the Scotties main draw.
Koe has never been a fan of the relegation format. He says he may quit rather than endure it next year.
“We’ll see what happens,” Koe, 37, told the Calgary Sun on Thursday.
“We always play it a year at a time because curling’s our third priority behind family and work, so we’ll have to talk with the boys, because there’s only five or six of us up there that are really competitive, and we’ll see who wants to put in the time. So we’ll see who wants to curl or if we’re going to curl.
“I’ve got a pretty busy career and a pretty busy family life. I’d have to weigh it with the wife. It’s a lot of effort to put in and a lot of travel you have to do in those two or three (preliminary) games before you get to the Brier. It’s a lot of effort to win those two or three games before you play in the Brier, and there’s no guarantee you’re in the Brier.
“I’m pretty disappointed now, so I’d probably say ‘no’, but in a month or two, I might say ‘yes’.”
“@FakeCSchille: Hopefully we have not just watched @JKnwt's last rock at the Brier. #tokens #patch”you probably did #retired
— Jamie Koe (@JKnwt) March 6, 2015
Earlier in the week, Koe described his distaste at watching his sister suffer in the Scotties preliminaries.
“It was tough watching her go through it,” he told the Edmonton Sun.
“They made it to the relegation draw live on TSN and then they had to pack up and go home. To see how emotional she was, it was tough seeing her cry on TV.”
